Originally Posted by
binnie
From the vaults: Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin (1986)
There was so much untapped potential on this album which - despite many fans deeming it the double OO's worst effort - actually became his biggest seller. The mid 80s was the point at which Ozzy began to become a self-parody, the point at which he began to conform to the comic book villain image that the popular press had of him. As a result, style began to overtake substance, and some of the magic of the earlier records (I include 'Bark At The Moon' in that) was lost. Listening too it now, the enjoyment comes from a sense of nostalgia rather than an appreciation of timeless music. Some of the tunes here were shot-through with the sunset strip sound which was making record companies so many $$$ in the mid-80s: 'Never Know Why', with its cod metal chorus, sounds like a rip off of Twisted Sister's 'I Wanna Rock'; and, despite possessing a cool riff, 'Lightning Strikes' possess a Bon Jovi melody and lyrics which could have been written by Brett Michaels ('Rockin' All Night' for fucks sake!) Its not the disaster that many pan it as, however. The title track has a crushing riff and might be the heaviest thing ever to appear on an Ozzy record. 'Secret Loser' - whilst certainly a sign of the times - has an immense riff and a infectious energy. Two of the strongest tunes, however, suffer by being so dated to the time in which they were created: the first, 'Killer of Giants', is Ozzy's musing on the insanity of nuclear war and is a brooding and dark tune featuring some great guitar work; the second, 'Shot In The Dark', is pure pop metal in the '80s mould. They were both good songs in their day, but they are limited by their timeliness - one by its subject matter, the other by its sound.
And perhaps that's the real story here. 'Blizzard...' and 'Diary..' are timeless heavy metal records that tap into the essence of what makes that genre so appealing. 'The Ultimate Sin' is no bad record, it is just one rooted firmly to its place in time both in the songwriting and production. The stale, rigid sound and loud drums do nothing to help the songs here, and rythym section robs them of much of their potential (Phil Soussan should have been shot for the pedestrian playing here.) Jake E Lee is, unquestionably, the most overlooked person in the Ozzy Osbourne story (shut up Bob Daisey fans!) The solos here are all dazzling, and some of the riffs are epic - 'Never' and 'Thank God For the Bomb', for example, are both songs which waste some of his work.
This is not quintessentially Ozzy; nor is it a great album. That does not mean, however, that it should be overlooked. There are a handful of gems here which might have stood the test of time better if Ozzy had included them in his setlist in the intervening years.