Blizzard Of Ozz

RANDY RHOADS

Very appropriate to see this album here now. It is definitely one of the best albums ever. This and Diary of a Madman are classic, but this has always been my favorite. Crazy Train, I Don't Know, Mr. Crowley are 10/10. The whole album is solid. Goodbye to Romance is one of my favorite Ozzy slow songs... 5/5

Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath was fantastic. Ozzy Osbourne solo is meh. As Ozzy does not write the music or even the lyrics. His albums depend on the musicians that write songs for him; in this case Randy Rhoads and Bob Daisley. The songs are ok, somewhere in between the styles of Rainbow and Whitesnake, but not outstanding and it sounds very 1980. As I like Ozzy, it gets three stars. (I dislike Sharon even more after reading this Wiki page).

I was a little on the young side to partake when this came out (indeed in my preteen years found this and music of similar ilk to inspire a certain genuine and unironic dread, alongside horror movies, as if the "bad art" could somehow get me). Half a dozen years later it featured prominently in the rotations of my stoner friends, though I was always more on the Zeppelin end of the early metal spectrum, along with 60s -70d era psychedelic rock. I came to be a fan of early Sabbath, but never got much into Ozzy's solo career. I doubt I ever intentionally listened to this straight through, though I'm sure I heard it all a good few times courtesy of said friends. Listening now it strikes me as quite fully realized. I still prefer old Sabbath, and my honest personal rating would probably be around 3.5, but I'll round up if for nothing else as a nod to Randy Rhoads, surely a strong contender for the dumbest, most arbitrary far-too-early deaths in rock and roll.

The man died recently. A lot of his legacy can be defined by his work in Black Sabbath, which was notable for pioneering heavy metal as a whole. Osbourne's stage antics and signature vocal style made him a staple of '70s rock music, but heavy drug and alcohol use made him difficult to work with as tensions rose between him and guitarist Tony Iommi. Kicked out by 1979, Osbourne was a wounded dog before his manager convinced him to go solo with an album deal on Jet records. Pull a few strings, get a few session musicians (who are incidentally also writing the songs with Osbourne) and you've got Blizzard of Ozz. It sounds a bit like Sabbath if they didn't have Iommi's moments of brilliance. His theatrics shine brightest on the more odd numbers like Mr. Crowley, but Steal Away The Night is a welcome change of pace for an album that is basically over after that. Not necessarily a great album but not a bad one either. I can see why this made Ozzy a household name. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: In the light of Ozzy's death and the public reaction to it, I truly feel like we don't have the mythos surrounding him without this album. Sure, he was better with Sabbath, but this album is an instrumental part in making him a legend. Without it we wouldn't have Ozzfest or Keeping Up with the Kardashians (believe it or not). I remember being an impressionable young teenager and seeing his likeness in video games like Guitar Hero and Brutal Legend, which cemented him as the "prince of darkness" in my mind. Yes, it should be on the list.

Well, clearly this is the right time for me to FINALLY listen to the album that I grew up amidst but never listened to. I grew to love Crazy Train thanks to a remake decades ago by Pat Boone, which lead me to the Ozzy song... now finally I am listening to the rest of the album and am so surprised at how much I love it! Fantastic and deserving of being on all the T-shirts!

How the original 1001 list can even be called a list with no solo Ozzy? This is a huge gap now solved by someone good enough to remember the prince of darkness.

May he rest in darkness. Great album

Prince of Darkness! Such a different sound than Black Sabbath. It's been a long time since I've listened to this album. It's pretty damn solid, although the first half is better than the second half. You Looking at Me, Looking at You is a downright pop song....and I didn't hate it. Pretty solid first solo album.

I'm trying not to overthink this too much. I mean this is, after all, Ozzy Osbourne's best solo album. It's the album that really defined Ozzy as a force in music outside of Black Sabbath. I was a little surprised not to see it on the original list and was pleased to see someone submit it. What works for Ozzy is what worked for him when he was in Sabbath. He has a unique, charismatic vocal style, full of both power and pathos. The presence of Randy Rhoads here also cannot be overstated. Randy has this wonderful mix of classical precision and playfulness that works uniquely well with Ozzy's style. This really is a couple of musical soulmates who sadly only got to work together for a very brief time. When they get it right, it's stunningly good and holds up beautifully all these years later. But there are also several skippable/forgettable tracks, particularly on the back half, and a lot of the lyrics are underwhelming. On balance, it's a terrific album, a must listen work for this genre and this era. And it just simply rocks. Put it in the tape deck and take it for a spin, volume up, windows down. Fave Songs: Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley, Suicide Solution, I Don't Know

I'm sure the lingering nostalgia from Ozzy's death is having a bit of an effect here, but the older I get, the more I appreciate what a titanic talent Ozzy Ozbourne was, and how good he was at surrounding himself with similar talent. This album is another example. Just a powerhouse from soup to nuts. A great listen, and something I really need to add to my personal collection 4/5

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: I Don’t know, Crazy train, Suicide solution, Revelation, You looking at me looking at you, Goodbye to romance

Heavy metal. Un megahit. Un 4.

Ozzy was a treasure, and it's always good to be reminded of that. I'm not sure that this album had a big impact on me other than the always-awesome Crazy Train.

Because great Ozzy album or because he just passed? Doesn’t matter it kicks ass

It's funny how everyone and their dog was Ozzy's biggest fan now that he's dead. I remember when it was very uncool to be into this shit, and girls sure didn't think it made me retro and hot when I was wearing Ozzy shirts and slamming beers. Yes that's some kind of hipster thing to say, but fuck all of you. You hypocrites. Anyway, this is a good enough album but there are really only 3 fantastic songs on it. His Randy Rhoads era could be turned into one decent album if you culled the filler shit. And Ozzy's best album is No More Tears by a long way. But this is still a 4/5.

September 5, 2025 HL: "Crazy Train", "MR. CROWLEY", "Revelations", “Goodbye to Romance” Has one of my favourite songs on it, and then some respectable hard rock. 🤘 Not that I have anything against the song “I Don’t Know”, but the album really should have started with “ALL ABOARD!” from “Crazy Train”. I didn’t think much of “Goodbye to Romance” the first listen, but liked it much more the second time. Ozzy had a surprising knack for ballads, between this, “Changes” and “Mama I’m Coming Home”.

Good old Ozzy. I don't really know how much input he had into this album but it's well produced and standard fare for Metal heads.

Ozzy’s first solo album and it showed that he was more than capable of solo work after Sabbath with some on lyrics from a few others. This album has some real classics on it that are hard to forget. Even the lesser known songs on this are still great rock songs or ballads. Overall it was a solid first solo album that may have been more generic rock than the metal Sabbath made. 7.5/10

I love Ozzy's voice, but this wasn't the best vehicle for it

Listened to this already it seems. Good stuff, I just think I'm a bit tired of Crazy Train 3 Always felt this style of "heavy metal" was kind of a joke. It's so upbeat, fun and accessible. And even more because of the popularity probably. It has carried over into pop music. Goodbye to Romance is a hidden banger tho.

Not a bad album stand alone, crazy train is a great song, but I wouldn’t replace any of the black sabbath albums for this, or listen to this over them. So I can’t find room for it on the list.

I really like early Black Sabbath, but strangely enough I've never really listened to any of Ozzy's solo work (other than songs that have gotten airplay). Good stuff overall, not as good as early BS though. RIP Ozzy.

Solid comp that serves as a reminder of why Osbourne is so lauded – the man invented metal itself alongside Sabbath, and wasn't content to stop there. Enjoyed the track selection here, doesn't feel too focused on any one era or project, and I was happy to see Mr. Crowley on here, a song I always felt got overshadowed by Crazy Train. Wish there was some Sabbath to contextualize things but I'm sure rights got in the way of that. Think this is a solid add to commemorate the man and acknowledge his contributions, even though every Black Sabbath LP ever is already in the main 1001.

RIP Ozzy, but also... this is just kind of generic hard rock, innit? It's still good of course, but I don't think there's a single song on here except maybe "Mr. Crowley" that holds a candle to anything off the first three Black Sabbath albums.

RIP king

Rest in Power, Ozzy. Yeah, the man was a legend, but for me the music on this album clearly pales in comparison to his heyday in Black Sabbath. Like all the albums of his solo career? Not knowing much about it, I can't be the judge of that, sure. Let's just say that what I heard here and there from said solo career screams eighties hair metal devolution to my ears. And that it's impossible for me to take this later sort of metal circus seriously. Case in point, this very album. Randy Rhoads -- may he rest in power too -- was a stellar guitar player, and his imaginative flourishes certainly shine on the first two songs from *Blizzard Of Ozz* -- quite nice cuts with somewhat memorable choruses for sure. Yet fun flourishes over an arguably formulaic canvas can't fully redeem the latter in my eyes. Black Sabbath are remembered today because they broke new ground. In comparison, *Blizzard Of Ozz* only sounds like a desperate attempt to remain relevant, as decent as its first two songs are. After those first two tracks, "Goodbye To Romance" is a very touching power ballad -- especially these days, I'm not gonna argue there either. But most of everything that follows is meat-and-potatoes fare -- pestered by thin-sounding production values to boot, even by 1981 standards. I can't even bother going through the details of the patchy tracklist, where the formula often reaches all the expected risible earmarks. So, to put it in a nutshell, choosing this album when truly influential Sabbath LPs *Master Of Reality* and *Sabbath Bloody Sabbath* are still missing in both the original and users lists is for me a mind-boggling thought process I can't wrap my finger around, period. Heck, even *Sabotage* -- arguably initiating Ozzy and Iommi's descent from their stellar period into a more fraught era -- deserves to be quoted ten times more than *Blizzard Of Ozz*. Besides, Ozzy or not, you can't expect me to give five or four points to something selected by a person who literally shat on Nirvana's two albums or the Stooges' three LPs for their original list reviews -- while also giving one point to the Velvet Underground debut, or one point to *Enter The Wu-Tang*, or one point to Kendrick's *good kid, m.A.A.d city*. I rolled my eyes so much at all this, I probably looked like a zombie. And that was fitting to the cheesy soundtrack that played as I did so, lol. I also can't help noticing the timing of this selection, i.e. a few weeks after Ozzy left us. I'm certainly not denying the sincerity of this particular user... Yet for me, the current very high global score reached by this record is mostly explained by the context, and not necessarily by the actual contents of the album. Music reception can't exist in a vacuum, people have attachments and affects, so there's absolutely no reason to lament the fact that they want to pay tribute to a recently departed iconic figure of rock history. Yet, let's face it: had this album been selected a year ago, you can bet your boots it wouldn't have approached the four points mark on a global level. 2/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 + 2) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ----- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 43 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 55 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 107 (including this one) --- Émile: voir ma toute dernière réponse sous le disque *Triage* au-dessus.

It’s not Black Sabbath