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.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Unextinct Technical Death Metal
HIDEOUS DIVINITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Powerlords Power Metal
ELETTRA STORM
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 7 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 7 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 7 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 10 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 10 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed