Mr_D's Full Review: Blizzard of Ozz [Remaster] by Ozzy Osbourne
1981's solo debut from former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne was titled Blizzard of Ozz, and it featured one of the best guitarists the land has ever known, Randy Rhoads.
This album would mark a distinct change in style for Ozzy: While with Black Sabbath, the band performed dark, heavy rock, in his Solo career Ozzy would embrace uptempo, higher pitched and keyed songs. He would also develop an affinity for the acoustic, as well as other classical music elements. So while this was termed "Heavy Metal", there are many great and varied musical elements to it, as well as a very upbeat hard rock and roll sound. Ozzy has never really quite fit into a genre, and as he himself puts it, he just considers what he plays "Rock and Roll".
This is Ozzy's best solo release, matched only, perhaps by the same-year follow up, Diary of a Madman. It includes some of Ozzy's best songs, "Suicide Solution", "Mr. Crowley", and "I Don't Know" as well as a couple of his more popular, like "Crazy Train" and "Goodbye to Romance".
There is one Sabbath-esque song, and that is "Revelation (Mother Earth)", which showed Randy's guitar versatility, laying down the dark evil licks as well as Tony Iommi. Also showing Randy's talent is the short acoustic piece "Dee".
Despite being the father of metal, Ozzy Osbourne's sound, for whatever reason, has pretty much always remained his. People are influenced by it, by do not copy it. An Ozzy song is distinct, which is something that very few artists can really say. Usually, from the first few notes, you know when an Ozzy song is coming. I think it is a testament to the respect that other musicians have for his work, both solo and in his Sabbath days.
So why is this album not a 5? Well, it's probably a 4.5. However, I don't think "Goodbye to Romance" is that good of a song, and there are 2 filler pieces in "No Bone Movies" and "Steal Away (The Night)". So while it's very good, it's not perfect. But that would be the formula for most of Ozzy's solo career, he would have half of a great album, and half of a fair album. Which may, unfortunately, be partially due to Rhoads untimely death.
And while I don't quite like Ozzy's solo stuff as much as his Sabbath days, you won't find a better solo album than this one. So check it out metalfans, learn your roots.
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