Ozzy Osbourne, 'Scream:' The Bring Back Glam! Album Review

Ozzy Osbourne recently released Scream, his 10th studio album. The album features Gus G. on guitars but there are places that sound just like former player Zakk Wylde.

The album opens with "Let It Die" -- perhaps one of my favorite tracks on the album. There's a lot of energy on this song and I do like the guitar work here. I also like Ozzy's voice and the lyrics. "Let Me Hear You Scream" is also good, but the more I listen to it, I swear Ozzy's voice has been mixed to death by ProTools. The song is super commercial (think "No More Tears") and therefore sounds slick as ice.

At this point, the album sort of goes into "depressive, introspective mode." There's a lot of lyrics about death or dying or end of the road. Downtrodden themes to be sure -- but then Ozzy seems to pick up the pace, countering the sad messages with an urging to live life. The song "Life Won't Wait" is a good example of this.

"Soul Sucker" has some good guitar work but I did listen to the song six times in a row and could not repeat the lyrics back so that isn't a great sign. I think "Let Me Hear You Scream" and "Let It Die" are far more memorable.

If you like piano, you might like "I Want It More." This is one of those somber songs but I kept going back to it, meaning there's something there beyond a dark blue message. The arrangement is good and I like Ozzy's vocal tone here, too. 

The album ends with "I Love You All" which sort of freaked me out: the way it is written, it's almost as if Ozzy is signing off for good. Sure, he could go into retirement fair and square...but he's the prince of darkness. Surely he's got a few more albums under his belt?

So, is Scream a masterpiece? No. But it is a strong record and metal fans will likely enjoy most of the tunes. Well worth a few bucks for some new music.

Comments

[damnp78]

Another great review. Thanks !

[Christian]

I am looking forward to hearing Gus, but it sounds like no different to the Zakk stuff of late. New music, not bad, but far from classic.

[ricksav65]

It sounds like it might the second coming of "Down to Earth" which is my least favorite Ozzy album.

[j haynes]

well he is called the prince of darkness for a reason....
ozzy was going for more of a sabbath sound....
personally i think the cd is really good.
if you are looking for happy,happy joy music this is not for you.
great lyrics and a welcome change....

[nirVrana]

Hmmm, is he saying goodbye...AGAIN? I remember one of my favorite concerts ever was the time I finally got to see Ozzy on his Retirement tour, or was it the Retirement Sucks tour? Anyway it was about 1992, and Alice In Chains opened up. What a night.

I am glad to see Ozzy still putting out new material. It has gotten slightly & steadily worse over the decades, but still better than most bands are putting out.

[Shadow]

This album completly blows away every album since NMT! the first 5 songs are gold. things do seem to trail off until Latimers Mercy but I will take this over a lot of Ozz's recent output. Remember this was Zakk's writing on most of this album so should another album be Gus Gus's writing should be featured

8/10!!! Rock on Ozzy!

P.S. Life Won't Wait says it all for me and this song has now been catalogued in my life's soundtrack!

[rawhide]

hey great review! i wish i had been following your site since it got started, only recently did i find out lots of my friends have been reading your articles for more than two years already! forgive me :( anyhow, here's my take on the new ozzy album > http://longliveheavymusic-rawhide.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-ozzy-album-scream-inescapable-gus-g.html

[chris]

Worst artwork of the year. Even that photo is bad. album sounds terrible also