I listened to about half of it a day or so after I last posted in this thread, haven't gone back and finished it yet (and obviously have not bought it yet).It seemed ok, not great, not bad, just kind of "meh" for the most part.
This week at work, back to back to back to back I listened to his last 4 studio albums and I have slightly changed my attitude about a couple of them.
1)
Ozzmosis (1995)
When this album came out, I thought it was a piece of shit. 25 years later, I still think it's a piece of shit. Aside from maybe 2 tracks, you can't even tell that Zakk is still the Ozzy's guitarist. If I didn't know any better, I would swear he didn't even play on this release. The album feels like it was over-produced by someone who didn't know what they were doing, yet was allowed total control to do whatever the hell he wanted at the control panel and he went hog wild changing everything about Ozzy's (and Zakk's) typical sound. To make matters worse, the song-writing is terrible. Easily the worst stuff Ozzy had ever done up to that point and possibly the worst stuff he's ever done, period. Terrible album. Such a disappointment.
2)
Down to Earth (2001)
Not really a memorable album, but better than I remembered it. At least Zakk sounds like Zakk again on this album. Some decent songs, but nothing really noteworthy in comparison to anything from the 70's, 80's or early 90's.. I still can't figure out what "You Know (part 1)" was all about. A 1 minute speaking track that never had a follow up part 2 track on any other album. Weird shit. Overall, my opinion went up a bit with this album and I may listen to it occassionally.
3)
Under Cover (not touching this one, some abysmal cover tracks that aren't worth going over), didn't even listen to it this week. A bunch of these songs are on the Prince of Darkness box set that left such a sour taste in my mouth (due to the bastardization of songs from the first 3 albums being re-recorded) that I really don't like anything about that album and most of this album is from that release.
4)
Black Rain (2007)
This album is also better than I remembered it being. Again, Zakk's playing is the highlight of this album (as with Down to Earth). I like both the main album release as well as the bonus disc. I'm not saying this is a great album, it's not. But of the 4 main studio releases following No More Tears (not including the latest Ordinary Man release) this is worthy of a listen once in a while. It is probably my favorite post-1991 studio release.
5) Scream (2010)
Like Ozzmosis, this album is mostly trash. The title track is ok and very little else is memorable in any way, other than remembering how uninspired the guitar playing is (Gus G, Zakk was gone by this point) and how lackluster all of the songs are. This album is barely a step above Ozzmosis and worth of only listening to maybe once every 5 to 10 years, to remind yourself of exactly WHY you don't listen to it.
