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Album Review
by SashaS
14-10-2001
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| Double-O |
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Ozzy Osbourne: 'Down To Earth '
(Epic/Sony)
Ozzy Osbourne, the Godfather of Metal, gets round to a studio for a solo work after six years
What James Brown is to funk, what Iggy Pop is to punk, Ozzy Osbourne is, and perhaps a bit more, to Metal. He, as part of Black Sabbath, invented Heavy Metal and without them we’d have missed on such great musical and cultural contributions by Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. One has to ask – where did it all go wrong?
Anyway, the ‘Mighty Double-O’, to give him fan’s faved ‘title’, has spent the past several years working with his original band (during the period they recorded ‘Psycho Man’ and ‘Selling My Soul’ for inclusion on the live set ‘Reunion’, 1998) and hasn’t had any time to work on his own album since ‘Ozzmosis’, six years ago. Now, ‘Down To Earth’, well, you know, the legend is where it feels comfortable, Hardish Rock, some virtuoso guitar playing, a couple of slower numbers…
None of this business of nu-metal malarkey, or ‘dressing-up’ like Slipknot, just solidly mature kind of rocking. From the opening ‘Gets Me Through’ you realise that the man is going to be dealing with his own humanity, disclaiming the titles of either an antichrist or Iron Man. ‘Facing Hell’ rocks like hell, ‘Black Illusion’ is based around another monstrous riff. Colossal is also ‘Alive’ while ‘Something That I Never Had’ has a very intricate rhythmic pattern.
For the romantics with Heaviness on their mind, there are a few cuts, ‘Dreamer’ and piano-driven ‘Running Out Of Time’ and it’s good to slow down, occasionally. In toto, a good album from the Ozz-man that doesn’t redress the shape of Metal. But that certainly is not the point as he is undisputed Champ and, although disciples can better their masters sometime, they’ll always be in his debt and shadow.
‘Down To Earth’ shows that Ozz-meister is on the ball in his own way. That’s all you can expect from the legend and he delivers it on the plectrum.
7/10
SashaS
14-10-2001
Ozzy Osbourne's 'Down To Earth' is released 15 October 2001 on Epic/Sony
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