OK, Here we go with OZZY OSBOURNE Diary of a Madman, this is the Ozzman’s second album and after the huge success of the first, it was important that Ozzy justified his place at the top of the Heavy Metal scrap heap.
The album opens up with an absolute banger “Over the Mountain” which from the opening seconds of this track the initial riff just stamps it’s authority over the metal world with undeniable force. Randy Rhoads is in magnificent form again and then Ozzy’s vocals kick in and we are all transported to another place. Ozzy in fine form and Randy contributing some absolutely blazing solo’s over the top of proceedings an almost unbeatable combination.
The second track “Flying High Again” slows things down a little bit and lets the bass work of Bob Daisley and the drum work of Lee Kerslake shine through. I’m not sure of the full story of what happened but in the original pressings of the album the bass work was credited to Rudy Sarzo and the drum work credited to Tommy Aldridge. (probably easiest to blame that on Sharon) but over the course of time this has been rectified with the help of a couple of lawsuits and even the Rudy and Tommy saying they never played on the record.
Then we have a rather haunting slower type song with “You Can’t Kill Rock N Roll” with some great heavy riffage, the slower intro providing further insight into exactly how good Randy actually was. Believer is another Slower paced song but man, I love that riff, very addictive. “Believer” and “Dolls” are up next and whilst the musicianship on these two songs are unbelievable I feel there’s been a few too many slower songs in a row on this album by this point. We probably needed a higher energy kicker about two songs ago, but hey its more to do with my taste rather than anything wrong with this album.
The album finishes up with “S.A.T.O” again a little light on the speed but again a great song and finally finishes with the title track “Diary of a Madman” which is a really creepy number and really sticks in your head. Over all a great album and a more than worthy follow up to Ozzy’s legendary debut album. If I had to make a choice I’d still take the first album over this one but this is great regardless.
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