As i slipped in the CD into my ever faithful combo drive, the starter track sent goosebumps through me! Honestly, this is the least i've exaggerated in days! The sounds were an alloy of modern and heavy, with both spooky and marrowy guitar and bass parts. Surprisingly there's still plenty of nostalgic glam-rock guitar squeals, and I guess this is what the 80's rick would sound like if they had better distortion effects back then.
Although Black Rain doesn't have a very original name, (considering that there's two novels, a Japanese movie, an American movie, a German music label and a Dark Lotus music album with the same title) the sounds are still absolutely original. From Ozzy's lyrical inspiration to Zakk Wylde's insane guitar, which is deeper and sounds more like sludge metal than recent releases, this album certainly deserves a listen!
I read it on one of the sites that this was the first album he'd recorded in a sober state! Boy, this is where you can tell that a rock star's getting old...
Gettin down to business, here's a lil sumthin' about the tracks -
Band Lineup: Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals Zakk Wylde - Guitars Blasko - Bass Mike Bordin - Drums
1. Not Going Away 2. I Don't Wanna Stop 3. Black Rain 4. Lay Your World On Me 5. The Almighty Dollar 6. 11 Silver 7. Civilize The Universe 8. Here For You 9. Countdown's Begun 10. Trap Door
"Not going away" : The name says it all.
"I Don't Wanna Stop" :In this second track Ozzy continues to rule as always, and wails, "All my life I've been over the top. I don't know what I'm doing all I know is, I don't wanna stop. All fired up, I'm gonna go till I drop. You're either in or in the way don't make me, I don't wanna stop." I cant help it, but this song gets me incredibly worked up! m/
"Black Rain": The title track is an intensely hot song that points at the political climate of war, specifically the current administration and their war-hawking tendencies. Ozzy pulls no punches when he sings, "Politicians confuse me. I watch the body count rise. Why are the children all marching into the desert to die? The human psyche is twisted, the madness rising again. Another empire falling. I watch them dying in vain. We've got our marching orders. Defenders of our home and our pride. We've crossed too many borders Military suicide." Brilliant.
"Lay Your World on Me." Ozzy wrote the song for his wife Sharon as she battled colon cancer, which was discovered in 2002 and lymph node cancer, which was discovered a year later. In the gripping ballad, he sings "I know you think you're all alone. I haven't been there when you've needed me. I didn't deserve the love you gave. But now I'm telling you I'm here if you need a friend. Give me your pain. Give me your anger. Let me be your rock; I can be the pillar of strength that you need. I'll help you keep it all together. It's better late than never. Lay your world on me - I can take the weight". This song pops up for the 89th time on my itunes as the 'most played' track!
Through the course of the CD, i noticed that he shed light on other weighty topics such as the greed of a big business that is destroying the environment in the name of profit ("The Almighty Dollar"); crystal meth addiction ("11 Silver"); and some more tracks about war ("Civilize the Universe", the "Countdown has Begun").
True, that Ozzmosis and Blizzard of Ozz still continue to be unbeatable, and thanks to constant bombardment of radio, "I Dont Wanna Stop" will be stuck in my head for quite some time now...
...but hey, who's complaining?!
All in all, Black Rain is 10 tracks of absolute brilliance. I'd give it 89/100.
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Sep 26th, 2008
(Oct 3rd, 2008)
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