Prior to the recording of this album, the trend was more inclined towards heavy metal more than heavy rock and Ozzy had picked up on this and always looking for ways to please the fans, ozzy moved up in the genre charts from Hard Rocker to Heavy Metal God.
With the help of motor head’s bassey, Lemmy Kilmister, ozzy and zakk sat down and composed the best songs they ever have written. Over time, ozzy’s lyrical talents haven taken a better shape and this very evident in this album, although the parents might disagree with me over the lyrics, with lyrics such as ’’I spoke to God this morning and he dont like u’’ and ’’I Dont want to change the world and dont want the world to change me!’’ had my parents climbing up the telephone poles! Desire has an awesome drum intro. Hell raiser has Zakk Wylde playing awesome pinch harmonic guitaring. Ozzy’s voice has reached the point of screaming in this album. its a wonder he hasnt lost his voice. With songs such as No More Tears, whioc is a 7 minute classic metal number, Momma Am Coming Home, written for his wife Sharon, S I N and Zombie Stomp brings out Ozzy’s awesome vocal styles, plus it has the advantage of the Lemmy Kilmister touch to the lyrics, and so his influence is clear. It has all the great guitar and thumping drums that characterise Black Sabbath’s work, but has a more metalish style written all over it. its an overall more listen-to-able album.
The opening track, Mr Tinkertrain, has all the styles of Black Sabbath in the making, very slowly and then bursts to life to become a fast hard heavy rockin’ song. Hell Raiser is a self portrait of the mad man himself and his life as a super star on the road. Zombie Stomp has him talking about his addictions....ie Drugs and Alcohol and how he figures out he’s overdoing it a Tad Bit more than he outtabe doing it. The track Road To Nowhere is a good fast power ballad that reflects, in which ozzy refects upon his life up to now and how he has has no regrets and would be more than happy to do it all again.
A Must buy album. you wont regret it