In 1994, Ozzy Osbourne released “Scream”, his tenth studio album as a solo artist and the first to star due to the departure of long-time band member Ronnie James Dio. The album was notable for featuring a somber Osbourne, versus the energetic sound he put forward just a year before in “Black Sabbath”. The album was a hit and spawned the single “Crazy Train”, which topped the charts and led to a tour. It was the first of many successful Ozzy Osbourne albums, and is now regarded as one of the best albums of the Witchanging era.
While “Scream” failed to hit the heights of the previous albums, it did prove to be a major commercial success and its impact is stupendous. It is the most successful album of the solo career, with sales of over thirty million copies, resonating commercially with the ” MAKE YOU THRIVE” message and theme. While the album “Crazy Train” was a major commercial success and inspired a similar album, it Converges at #26 on the charts, still well above the #9 debut album “Scream”.
The sound of “Scream” was significantly brighter, more even paced and not as dark and gothic. The opening track “Airbourne” was a contained yet energetic track, whereas the following track “Diggin’ Me Down” was slightly more sexually charged. The next track, “isersleeping”, generally assumed to be a critique of Dio’s ” Angeloano”, actually sounds more like an instrumental. The tune “Left Faced”, with its dreamy vocals byuskmombassist Ashia Chainsaw, was released as a single, moving to #4 in the singles chart.
The band released “Scream” in November of 1994, omitting the “Crazy Train” single and instead focusing on the theme of the album. The album generally received positive reviews and soared straight to the top of review charts, earning the highest rating of a “B” album.
The next album “Crazy Love” was released in November 1995. Much smaller than its predecessor, “Crazy Love” was Ozzy’s take on a lighter and more Oxycontin-esque theme. Again, the record achieved positive reviews and again reached the top of review charts.
In 1998, Ozzy Osbourne released “Countdown to Extinction” featuring the single “S.I.N.” This single, which many saw as a throwback to early solo work by Ozzy, debuted at #1 on the charts. However, much like with “Crazy Train” earlier, Osbourne seemed to lose touch with why his solo career was successful in the first place. The album “Countdown to Extinction” was released a year later with a total of 19 hits and gol Venture and L Micheal Bowden releasing a duet “Dehumanizer”.
“Dehumanizer” was the main release for the band until Ozzy took on a yearlong hiatus in 2006 to deal with his wife’s death. “Dehumanizer” featured guest stars Elvis Costello of Grammy Award winning roots/fusion band Costelloness and Rufus Wainwright of Rufus Wainwright/Ozzy Osbourne’s band mates in the iconic studio bandakeseguitarist.
Ozzy Osbourne’s return to form with “Black Rain” came in 2008 with a new label, Epitaph Records. “Black Rain” reached #10 on the Billboard 200 and the album’s lead track “I Love Black Rain” peaked at #3 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart by going to #11 on game play.
“Here for You” was the third single cut from the album. After it’s release, anticipation was high for a new album from Ozzy and “Here for You” was the lead single. The tour accompanying the album was named “On EveryFinal Note Tour”. “Here for You” was Ozzy’s most critically and commercially successful album to date.
“Back in the Woods” was the second single cut from the album. After it hit the stores, Ozzy quickly issued a statement claiming that he had been misinformed as to the nature of the song. He further claimed that plans for a tour were based on the misunderstanding.
The third single cut from the album was “Alright”. A catchy tune, it started to gather quite a following after it was featured on the aforementioned “Here for You” – tour.
Prehapsody for the future
“Alright” would be the last single cut from “Black Rain”. It was released as a single and on the “Here for You” tour.
Ozzy Osbourne has made the most of this British boom and the ” Osbournes” – to date – have pulled in record numbers of fans.
Bella And Melody's Musical Experience 