Guest Reviewer: booberry
Band: Ozzy Osbourne
CD Title: Black Rain
Year: 2007
Website: www.ozzyosbourne.com
MySpace: to be added - he's bound to have one though!
Label: Sony
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Guest Reviewer. Review also featured on Sputnik
Rating: 1.5/5
More Links: Original Thread on forum.

Pretty much every time a metal band that was once great is about to release a new album, many people think that it will be their next magnum opus. Before Metallica released St. Anger, many thought that it would be Master Of Puppets. It wasn't. So naturally, I'm sure many people thought that this would be the next Blizzard Of Ozz or Diary Of A Madman, but it turns out that Black Rain is just an album filled with garbage.

This time, the Ozzman, Zakk Wylde, and the others go for a more polished and futuristic sound. The songs pretty much sound the same throughout. There will be some stupid interlude or a flat-out dull and uninteresting moment that will just ruin what would be an otherwise mildly decent song. The Almighty Dollar is one of these tracks. It sounds alright at first, but then it is butchered with some piano part.

Another serious problem with Black Rain is that it has poor production. If this had been a different band, the production would have been fine, but this doesn't fit with Ozzy. Everything sounds overplolished and futuristic, like in Trap Door. This sounds like it would belong in Logan's Run or Blade Runner, and I'm not trying to be funny. I'm not exaggerating either. This is true. Also, the vocals sound too futuristic as well, especially in Trap Door. There is also a lack of material. Maybe because this copy came from K-Mart, but there are only ten song. I suppose that it's a good thing, since most of the material on here is subpar. It also seems like Ozzy focused too much on the single, I Don't Wanna Stop. The lyrics on this song may be cheesier than the Turbo-era Judas Priest, but the song is very catchy. It delivers more than any other track on the album, and it's the single.

The first two tracks are really the only tracks that are truly impressive. The other tracks are watered-down, super-polished, futuristic songs that are either decent/mediocre, or really crappy. At least the musicianship is actually good. I know that a lot of people give Zakk Wylde crap because he's popular, or for some reason like that, but hey can play his instrument very well. Also, the bass is good too, and it flows with the guitar, giving it a very heavy feel.

So overall, to describe all the tracks would have been pointless, because it would have just been: "This track, like the others, is futuristic and polished, blah blah blah...". A lot of the songs sound the same, most of the songs have these terrible little interludes that ruin the song, and it's over-polished and too futuristic sounding. Ozzy fans, this isn't what you've been waiting for Ozzy to make for the past ten plus years. There are two very good tracks, and the rest is just mediocre. Black Rain was a real let-down for me, and I know it will be for everyone else who has been waiting for it for a long time.

Songs To Download:
Not Going Away
I Don't Wanna Stop