OZZY OSBOURNE — The Ultimate Sin (review)

OZZY OSBOURNE — The Ultimate Sin album cover Album · 1986 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
SouthSideoftheSky
“I can understand that what you see you think is real, but underneath the surface is a wound that cannot heal”

Following the excellent Bark At The Moon album, The Ultimate Sin was the second album featuring guitarist Jake E. Lee and the fourth album overall from Ozzy Osbourne (not counting his albums with Black Sabbath, of course). Comparing the present album with his earlier efforts, this one is clearly less great and also a bit more polished than previous albums. But it is still a good album in its own right. Like Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman, The Ultimate Sin too has a couple of weaker tracks, but this is still a mostly very enjoyable album. The second half of the album is particularly enjoyable with great songs like Killer Of Giants, Fools Like You and Shot In The Dark. The first of these three is this albums’ counterpart to Revelation (Mother Earth) from the debut or the excellent title track from Diary Of A Madman. This song is my favourite from this album and it features wonderful, Neo-Classical acoustic guitar playing from Jake E. Lee. Shot In The Dark is one of Ozzy’s biggest hits and one of his most well-known songs. Some people probably find it too Pop, but I think it is a classic! This song got Ozzy into at least one lawsuit over who actually wrote the song, most people say it was bass player Phil Soussan who replaced Bob Daisley for this album (with which Ozzy also had an argument). It cannot have been easy to work with Ozzy!

The title track and Secret Loser are also both very good songs, the latter featuring very personal lyrics. The weaker tracks of the album come in the middle with Never Know Why being particularly weak with cheesy lyrics and an overly catchy chorus. Lightning Strikes too has an awful chorus, though the rest of the song is decent I suppose. Thank God For The Bomb shares its lyrical theme with Killer Of Giants which are both about nuclear weapons in particular and war in general. It would have been interesting had they opted for making the whole album conceptual!

The present album is a good addition to any Ozzy Osbourne collection, but start with the three first albums.
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