OZZY OSBOURNE
Blizzard of Ozz (1980)


Rating: 9/10
Incontrovertible proof that Ozzy is God (or at least a close relation)


This is Ozzy's magnum opus, his first album after leaving Black Sabbath, and it's mind-bogglingly brilliant no matter. There are your heavy metal footnotes - "I Don't Know" and "Suicide Solution" - and then you've got Ozzy doing an almost complete about-turn from the high soberness of Black Sabbath, flying off the handle, playing the capering madman on "Crazy Train" and then whooping it up on the sardonic rah-rah of "No Bone Movies."

"Goodbye to Romance" is a perennial, whimsical bit of rock reverie that brings to mind (at least to my mind) The Beatles' "Penny Lane." And then there's "Mr Crowley," for which I have only reverent speechlessness. Cue, organ intro.

To top it off... Randy Rhoads, Ozzy's young and sadly soon to be tragically dead guitarist. Frighteningly talented to say the least... I can only imagine the kind of things he and Ozzy might have gotten up to if he hadn't died. His own contribution (apart from supplying some of the most unforgettable riffs and solos in heavy metal history) the instrumental "Dee" is a lovely classical guitar piece that, preceding the remorseless crunch of "Suicide Solution", abets the kind of variety and innovation that sets BLIZZARD OF OZZ head and shoulders above most records in any musical genre.


Gerald Tan 1997

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 Visitor's Comments:

FROM: rachely@hotmail.com (Rachula Marula Ystenula)
DATE: Wed, 7 Apr 1999
SUBJECT: I love "Goodbye to Romance!!"
COMMENTS: For 18 days and 18 nights, I have done nothing but listen to "Goodbye to Romance," I feel weary and yet when I turn the cd off I feel as if I can't go on. When the music stops, I die. Goodbye to romance is like magic rays of sunshine that come down from the sky when I'm feeling blue. My dying wish is to be buried with GTR playing eternally in my casket. I guess Ozzy and I will meet in the end, just as the song says. If you take my song away, then Satan got your thigh. Love ya Ozzy!!

FROM: Ozzwoman82@aol.com (Tina)
DATE: Sat, 26 Dec 1998
SUBJECT: BLIZZARD OF OZZ
COMMENTS: Blizzard of Ozz is one of Ozzy's best CDs. I love Mr. Crowley. Whoever said Suicide Solution had subliminal messages is full of shit.



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