siLLy puPPy Every so often in a metal god’s career, someone gets a wild hair up their ass and release something that is equivalent to entering the torture chamber and in the case of the godfather of metal himself, OZZY OSBOURNE delivers his biggest turd in the punchbowl of his career with his ninth album titled UNDER COVER which as the title suggests is indeed an unbelievably unnecessary collection of fourteen gawd awful tracks that makes me wonder after which party the quality control crowd passed out at when this was given the ole a-OK for release.

To be honest, i am not a huge fan of cover albums period but there are rare examples of where a band can pull off a track or two (such as Voivod’s extraordinary Pink Floyd cover “Astronomy Domine” or Marilyn Manson’s version of the Eurythmics classic “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This.”) There are even a scant few albums out there such as Between The Buried And Me’s “The Anatomy Of” which effortlessly tackles a wide swath of musical achievements that leaves me in awe, however most of the time these types of projects make me cringe and in the case of OZZY OSBOURNE’s take on his favorite tracks of all time, cringe i do indeed.

Yes, it’s true that an artist should be allowed to pay respect to other’s in the biz that moves him / her to tears and what better way than a pointless, boring and unflattering cover album to tell them how much they mean to him / her. UNDER COVER is really one big batch of ridiculously misconceived and uninspired tributes finding OZZY tackling everyone from Joe Walsh and King Crimson to Buffalo Springfield, Mott The Hoople as well as The Beatles with the cream of the crop torturous moment achieved on John Lennon’s “Woman.” A number one flop on the cringe-o-meter for sure.

Despite the ridiculous nature of this piece of musical excrement, the production team and guest stars on board is quite impressive with even Ian Hunter collaborating on “All The Young Dudes” as well as Leslie West of Mountain joining in for a guitar solo on “Mississippi Queen.” There are tons of other guest stars as well including Joe Bonamassa and Gregg Bissonette to name a few. While this is the only album to find Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell filling the shoes of the great Zakk Wylde, this is hardly something he will be bragging about when he’s telling tales of lore to his grandchildren.

This is definitely one of those fan collectibles only and since i am indeed an OZZY OSBOURNE fan who is a completist at least as far as studio albums are concerned, this one sits on my shelf and got listened to one time and never again, well until i pulled it down for this review and i have to admit that this is one of the most horrible experiences i could ever imagine subjecting onto unwilling ears and if there is a hell then this one is surely on perpetual replay for eternity. Sorry OZZY, i love ya, man but this is utter crap! Every track is AWFUL but hearing OZZY sing The Animals, John Lennon and Bessie Banks makes me want to hurl. I think i’m scarred for life :o

UMUR "Under Cover" is the 9th full-length studio album by UK heavy metal artist Ozzy Osbourne. The album was released through Epic Records in November 2005. The album is a compilation of cover tracks. Nine of the thirteen (ten if you count the bonus track) also appeared on the 4 disc "Prince of Darkness" box set released in March 2005. Session musicians for the project are guitarist Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), drummer Mike Bordin (Faith no More) and bassist Chris Wyse.

Ozzy Osbourne has chosen to cover tracks from, among others, Joe Walsh, The Beatles, King Crimson, Cream and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Some covers are better than others, but none of them really shine. It´s all a bit flat and uninspired. Things aren´t helped along by the polished sound production, which doesn´t exactly spell rock´n´roll blood, sweat and tears but rather dollars and mainstream appeal. I have absolutely no problem with the latter if the project felt honest and sounded great, but that´s not exactly the case here. If the booklet at least had told a story to each track about why Ozzy Osbourne had chosen to cover those particular tracks and what the tracks meant to him, it might have given the album another dimension, but of course it wouldn´t change the fact that "Under Cover" sounds a bit tired and dare I say soulless. Maybe best exemplified by the fact that the cover of "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson leaves out the kickass progressive middle part and turns even that badass track into an easily digestable mainstream heavy metal track. Where´s the grit and bite in that? The very soul of heavy rock/metal is simply missing here. Yes quite a few of the tracks are rock ballads and therefore shouldn´t be faulted for not being metal, but you don´t need to arrange them in the most saccarine way possible. Too many of the ballads on Ozzy´s own albums can be a bit of a trial to get through already and the ones on this album come off even worse.

While I´m tempted to give this album a really low rating, as it goes against just about everything I believe that rock/metal is and should be (call me conservative if you will), "Under Cover" does come off as a professional product, written and performed by professionals and I guess the craftmanship deserves a 2.5 star (50%) rating. I ain´t happy about it though and I certainly wouldn´t recommend "Under Cover" to anyone I know.

ydewata Ozzy Osbourne’s latest release in 2005, Under Cover, only proved that this man can only sing songs that “are” meant for his voice. Under Cover is an awful effort to pay tribute to some of the legends whose songs are covered here. In this record, Ozzy played a variety of tracks. From Joe Walsh and The Beatles to King Crimson, Mott The Hopple, Cream, and even The Rolling Stones. He also had 2 tracks covered from John Lennon, “Woman” and “Working Class Hero”.

In my personal opinion, Ozzy’s voice isn’t that great but he has that unique characteristic that would make people chill. But it wouldn’t happen in this record. Ozzy’s weak attempt to approach each of the songs in this album will make you wondering what he was really trying to say (…for the sake of $$$?). it is not clear if he was trying to approach them his way, or trying to feel the original emotion into his voice. Either way, it is useless. Back to the first track “Rocky Mountain Way” (Joe Walsh), I was going to close the listening session. But I managed to stay until the end track, in which didn’t help in making me feel good at all.

Ozzy ruined everything here. The devilish “Sympathy For The Devil” (The Rolling Stones) was turned into a cheesy pop music, while he’s going nowhere with John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”. Ozzy was trying to Iron Man-ize “21st Century Schizoid Man” (King Crimson) but with no success. Nice try for a duet with daughter Kelly Osbourne but it was useless. Kelly’s voice is awful as well.

The fact that Ozzy was supported by guitarist Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains) and drummer Mike Bordin (ex-Faith No More) did not help at all. I even hardly heard Jerry’s guitar sound in this album. The sound of his guitar was so light that I had to have a deep listen to get to hear his guitar-playing here. Or there was no guitar at all in this album??

I was very disappointed with Under Cover. I was ready and prepared to hear Ozzy kicking some ass interpreting some great songs in Under Cover. I even got more excited knowing that my guitar-hero Jerry Cantrell would participate in this record. My expectations turned out wrong and unfruitful. This is the record that I would not recommend to listen to.