Trackliste :

Ozzy Osbourne is back again, and he’s changed. Black Rain is the demonstration of that: new sonorities and new promises for an old heavy metal star. The albums sees the presence of some of the biggest names of its genre: Zakk Wilde on guitar, Rob “Blasko” Nicholson on bass and Mike Bordin on drums. As Ozzy said, this is the first album recorded without the effect of drugs or alchool. Another sign of this changement?

Not Going Away, the first track, reassures us that, despite the changes, the Ozzy we are listening to is the same crazy man we used to know. Surely, something different comes suddenly to our ears: the style looks much more modern, with some nu metal sonorities, from the guitar to the electronic effects. Another characteristic is the use of catchy lyrics: the chorus is repeated again and again, making the tracks perfect for a live performance. I Don’t Wanna Stop follows the same scheme: strong drum parts, wonderful guitar riffs, while the chorus presents lots of repetition. From the self-oriented considerations of the first two tracks, we go to more general themes. Black Rain is a dramatic reflection about war and modern world, marked in Ozzy Osbourne’s style. Again a catchy melody, with strong rythms, where other bands maybe would have prefered to make a ballad. Ballad that comes in the next track, Lay Your World On Me, not one of my favourite tracks, despite its sweet lyrics. The Almighty Dollar comes back to reflections about a world that is falling down: this time the critic is, obviously, related to money, that seem to rule our whole lives. The tracklist continues with 11 Silver: if in the other tracks we can hear some electronic effects that modifies Ozzy’s voice without disturbing the listening, here the same effect seems to be a bit abused. Surely, there is a wonderful guitar solo where Zakk Wilde shows us again his ability in amazing ways.

Civilize The Universe contains strong critics against the modern world, where ‘better is turning to worse’: the sound here is a bit softer, with a catchy chorus, as usual. Again, we have a wonderful guitar solo. The theme of war and the critics against this world seem to be the main characters of this album, since we can find a similar things also in the lyrics of Countdown’s Begun. Here For You, on the other side, contains the characters of Ozzy’s classic ballads: a very well done work, with sweet words and wonderful and sweet melodies. Trap Door is the song that takes us to the end of this beautiful album: the song could look as a summary of what we could hear in the whole album. So Black Rain ends, leaving us singing again the catchy lyrics that hypnotized our minds during all the album.

Rating : 8/10