Ozzy Osbourne – The Ultimate Sin – 1986
I swear to god, “Secret Loser” sounds like Ratt’s “Round and Round”. And that’s the problem with mid-80s metal. By now all these bands are starting to sound like each other. I don’t know whose fault it is, I put the blame on everybody. Metal was big money in the mid 80s. Forced to share the stage with Michael Jackson just pushed everybody to come up with the next hit for a voracious sea of fans who, the labels and bands must have been assuming, would buy anything.
So Ratt sounds like Ozzy which sounds like Sabbath which sounds like…..You got your big ass shredatstic lead solos, the finger tapping craziness, over compressed drum pummeling, soaring vocals. It’s all formula by now. And it’s nowhere near as prevalent as it is on this record.
Interesting sidenote: Ozzy has never reissued this record. It has been all but deleted from his back catalog. If you hear it you will know why.
There’s a little political commentary on this record. “Killer of Giants” is a way too on the nose plea for the end of nuclear standoffs and “Thank God for the Bomb”…is the opposite?
Osbourne and Daisley aren’t really the best voices for this type of criticism, they’re better suited to, I dunno, shrieking about monsters and murder and rock and roll.
The single (at the end of the record!!) “Shot in the Dark” is as generic a piece of radio friendly pap that renders Ozzy nearly anonymous on his own record. That said, it’s the best song on the album.
Grade: D+
ASide: Shot in the Dark
BlindSide: Never
Downside: Secret Loser, Lightning Strikes
