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khaos

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2 hours ago, navybsn said:

I dunno about skipping BATM. Fucking Jake E. Lee is awesome on that album.

My problem isn't with Jake E Lee, it was with the overly commercial songwriting and Ozzy himself who had already become somewhat of a drug & booze addled buffoon by this point. That title track was all over the radio back then and to me it was so bad that it put me off buying the album. By '83 we were going to a lot of metal shows in the city like 4 or 5 nights a week (we were spoiled for choice with live metal in NYC and LI back in the 80's, we'd often just hop in the car head west and then sort out which club we were headed to on the way there) and I had started discovering heavier stuff like Slayer, Metallica, Mercyful Fate, hardcore punk and all those albums I just posted 3 hours ago. So the more commercial sounding stuff I'd been into just a couple of years earlier like Ozzy started sounding too sweet to me, like trying to drink coffee with too much sugar. By the end of '84 I had phased almost all of that more mainstream commercial metal stuff out of my listening rotation and had become obsessed with thrash and speed metal and Celtic Frost.

But alright brother, since this is you giving this thing your good ole southern boy seal of approval I'm gonna dial up this Bark at the Poon record here on the Tube 40 years after its release and see what all the fuss is about. 

Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon, 1983

 

I already knew that I can't stand the title track but I didn't skip it, I sat here and took it like a man. The 2nd track You're No Different is a boring keyboard laced ballad or something. Track 3 Now You See It isn't terrible but it's nothing special. Track 4 R&R Rebel has that cool isolated opening guitar riff, but then it all goes to shit once Ozzman starts singing. The ghey chorus absolutely kills it for me. Do I dare continue to side 2? Track 5 Center of Eternity is a zippy little upbeat number, but the riffs are quite generic and unimpressive. Track 6 So Tired is a sappy insufferable ballad completely void of guitars - SKIP! Track 7 Slow Down ok we seem to be rocking again, but the chorus is retarded. Slow down your haste is making waste?!? Get the fuck outta here Bob Daisley! (said in my best Tony Soprano accent) Track 8 Waiting for Darkness, again it's not absolutely terrible but it's certainly not good. I'm not against bands using keyboards but they were not used well here on this album. And that's it, seems we've run out of songs while I was waiting for the record to get good.

I think this is the type of thing I would only be able to enjoy if there was some nostalgia attached to it. But being my very first time through it just sounds really dated to the period and overly commercial. This doesn't strike me as a real guitar hero type of record at all, where are all the memorable solos I was expecting like on the first 2 albums? I'm not disparaging Mr Lee's playing ability or anything, I'm sure he's quite proficient. But I mean it's just so 80's sounding, they've got this thing all tarted up like a farmer's daughter going out with her single friends on Saturday night. You'd have to strip away all this slick 80's production and frilly keyboards like stripping away layers of caked-on makeup just to see what she even looks like in the light of day.

Now I guess I'll have to go listen to Diary of a Madman for the first time in 30 years just to get the taste of this turd out of my mouth. Jeez, I think this Bark at the Poon experience was even worse than that time I finally got around to listening to Priest's Painkiller 2 or 3 years ago and discovered it sucked.

Ozzy Osbourne - Flying High Again

 

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38 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

...somewhat of a drug & booze addled buffoon by this point.

....like trying to drink coffee with too much sugar.

Now I guess I'll have to go listen to Diary of a Madman for the first time in 30 years just to get the taste of this turd out of my mouth.

Diary of a Madman is better, no question, but BATM is perfectly serviceable. I'd listen to some of those supposed classics from 1983 you listed but you'll have to narrow it down to which you think are actually stellar all the way through. Not interested in a scattergun, but a surgical strike. My guess is they'll each have one or two solid tracks and the rest is dated filler with no nostalgic connection for me and hence a doomed exercise. For me BATM has a good flow. So Tired is a bit of a clunker but kind of works in context. I used to love Waiting For Darkness. A solid 1983-era metal album closer. 

Kill 'Em All is only just out and shows promise but BATM is still state of the art (for better or worse) in 1983.

Ozzy is, was and always will be a drug & booze addled buffoon. In fact that will be on his grave stone, in the shape of a urinal with those words on the rear wall for you to piss on.

Why would anyone drink coffee with sugar in it? Savages.

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5 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

this is the type of thing I would only be able to enjoy if there was some nostalgia attached to it.

That's exactly it. This hit right when I was getting into metal and Ozzy was the embodiment of Satan himself. All I knew was my mother hated Ozzy like the devil so he was my man. Lee's riffs may be an acquired taste these days, but back then it was the tits. The Ultimate Sin was pretty good in 86 too. These days, I'd agree you could combine the high points of those 2 albums and have a good EP. Back then, Jake E. was the man. He had/Has a distinctive style of riff that hits me just right. And I can't be the only one because I hear his influence a lot in newer bands. Aurthir Rizik for instance (Eternal Champion/Sumerlands) has Lee's fingerprints all over his playing. Anyway, I lost interest in Ozzy around Nor Rest for the Wicked and never looked back.

NP: Bathory - Blood Fire Death

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7 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Diary of a Madman is better, no question, but BATM is perfectly serviceable. I'd listen to some of those supposed classics from 1983 you listed but you'll have to narrow it down to which you think are actually stellar all the way through. Not interested in a scattergun, but a surgical strike. My guess is they'll each have one or two solid tracks and the rest is dated filler with no nostalgic connection for me and hence a doomed exercise. For me BATM has a good flow. So Tired is a bit of a clunker but kind of works in context. I used to love Waiting For Darkness. A solid 1983-era metal album closer. 

Kill 'Em All is only just out and shows promise but BATM is still state of the art (for better or worse) in 1983.

Ozzy is, was and always will be a drug & booze addled buffoon. In fact that will be on his grave stone, in the shape of a urinal with those words on the rear wall for you to piss on.

Why would anyone drink coffee with sugar in it? Savages.

Well there's your problem right there Jon. You think BATM is a better album than K'EA, which is of course ludicrous, they're not even in the same galaxy. BATM is not even fit to lick the mud off of the 4 Horsemen's hooves, (nevermind the superior Show No Mercy which would have put it to death by the sword) but that's your taste so ok fine, whatever. I think we're talking apples and oranges here though really, BATM being essentially commercial pop rock marketed to young kids as "heavy metal" while all those other 1983 albums I posted were nwobhm or non-British heavy metal or speed metal that were probably a little too rough around the edges to be played on the radio and probably not something you'd choose to play in the car on your annual road trip to Blackpool with your lovely family aboard. Albums like Heavy Metal Maniacs, Loose 'n' Lethal and the Burn S/T are all stone cold early 80's heavy metal classics, but you won't find any Rock & Roll Rebels or Shot in the Darks or Mama I'm Coming Homes on those records. Also I have to keep reminding myself that you and Navy were both only about 8 years old in 1983, so it makes sense that you two as little kids would have had starkly different musical tastes than I did as a full grown rabid bullet-belted headbanger in 1983.

 

Mercyful Fate - Melissa, Denmark, another 1983 must-own heavy metal classic.

 

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I agree with the Goatmaster General.  I've never understood appeal of some of Ozzy's early solo stuff.  It was very poppy and often gutless, fluffy and lacking anything of note say Randy's solos.  There are a couple of 

Even if we ignore the Goatmaster's less well known albums (some of which are excellent ala Exciter and Savage and most of rest I haven't heard) and focus on "mainstream" metal there was a lot of stuff out there that punched heavier, was more memorable and more interesting than Ozzy solo stuff in 1980-83 eg Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules to be exact), Accept, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Def Leppard, Dio, Twisted Sister, AC/DC or even Judas Priest (not a Priest fan).

 

And that doesn't include underground NWOBHM, and nascent thrash, speed and black metal scenes.

I understand for some people it's a bit of nostalgia.   I am the same way about bands I first got into (eg soft spot for Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion I and II).

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2 hours ago, Dead1 said:

I agree with the Goatmaster General.  I've never understood appeal of some of Ozzy's early solo stuff.  It was very poppy and often gutless, fluffy and lacking anything of note say Randy's solos.  There are a couple of 

Even if we ignore the Goatmaster's less well known albums (some of which are excellent ala Exciter and Savage and most of rest I haven't heard) and focus on "mainstream" metal there was a lot of stuff out there that punched heavier, was more memorable and more interesting than Ozzy solo stuff in 1980-83 eg Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules to be exact), Accept, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Def Leppard, Dio, Twisted Sister, AC/DC or even Judas Priest (not a Priest fan).

 

And that doesn't include underground NWOBHM, and nascent thrash, speed and black metal scenes.

I understand for some people it's a bit of nostalgia.   I am the same way about bands I first got into (eg soft spot for Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion I and II).

 

I never got on the Ozzy Train either. I agree with Dead preferring Heaven and Hell Mob Rules, Accept, Twisted Sister, etc. My freshman year in college in Bahston at Emerson College on Beacon St. there were a group of guys that were all over the Oz. I did buy Diary of a Madman- It's a damn good album I will admit. 

Just now, markm said:

 

 

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Megadeth - The Sick the Dying and the Dead (2022)

 

1 hour ago, Innominate said:

ADX - Execution

 

ADX, excellent Heavy/Speed band from my country!

I'm a fan of Execution, La Terreur and Suprématie, their first 3 albums.

And they still exist, 41 years after the birth of the band!

🤘🏻

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10 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Well there's your problem right there Jon. You think BATM is a better album than K'EA, which is of course ludicrous, they're not even in the same galaxy.

I never said BATM was better than Kill 'Em All. KEM is a great album and, yes, in a different galaxy compared to BATM in terms of innovation. It is still finding its way though, with some throwback classic heavy metal tropes. They didn't know they were inventing thrash metal at the time.

I listened to the first track of the first album you posted. The Swedish one. It sounded like Van Halen to me, at least vocally which is what gave it its identity. I'm not sure why this would be "heavier" than Bark at the Moon (the song) which is fast and has a blistering solo. You just reeeally don't like that song. I think you need therapy to unravel the bad touch which took place while BATM was playing.

It occurred to me yesterday that 'Murrica didn't really have much to offer in the heavy music sphere until thrash hit. Twisted Sister is the only classic metal band I can think of which I love, but know you hate (and they found their first success in the UK). Aforementioned Van Halen never did it for me, although I can accept the guitar playing innovation.

I need to check the shelf*. I think the only American album I have from the 70s is Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies, which is decent, but not pushing any musical boundaries.

But you gave us slaves and the blues, so cheers for that.

*EDIT:

Jimi Hendrix. Goddammit. Technically American, but with an English band and management.

The Stooges, Fun House. 1970. I got this for my birthday one year because I was told I needed schooling in proto-metal. It is very enjoyable, if a bit too alternative in places.

KISS: Dynasty (ha) and The Elder (HA!). A very much American band. The very epitome of image over substance.

Can't count Rainbow Rising. 

Quiet Riot Metal Health (1983). Good grief this has not aged well. BATM is not remotely as dated as that. 

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11 hours ago, Dead1 said:

I agree with the Goatmaster General.  I've never understood appeal of some of Ozzy's early solo stuff.  It was very poppy and often gutless, fluffy and lacking anything of note say Randy's solos.  There are a couple of 

Even if we ignore the Goatmaster's less well known albums (some of which are excellent ala Exciter and Savage and most of rest I haven't heard) and focus on "mainstream" metal there was a lot of stuff out there that punched heavier, was more memorable and more interesting than Ozzy solo stuff in 1980-83 eg Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules to be exact), Accept, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Def Leppard, Dio, Twisted Sister, AC/DC or even Judas Priest (not a Priest fan).

It's like we are listening to different things. The first two Ozzy solo records are not poppy, both have nods to the diverse nature of early Sabbath work, but through a team of writers that weren't quite as transcendent as a circa '70-'75 Iommi. The main problem is the vocals are too high in the mix. Ozzy should never be considered the star of the show, he's the sideshow clown for entertaining children while the real musicians work. 

It's true that BATM onwards gets more streamlined and, compared to the invention of thrash, seem tame. I'd have to agree The Ultimate Sin was pretty poppy. He looked the part of an overweight drag queen and could barely stand up. But that album is heavier than Turbo. No Rest for the Wicked is a slight improvement (I prefer that one). The real decline (in terms of writing crowd pleasing pop) doesn't start until No More Tears which I've mentioned before has significant nostalgia for me, although I've not heard it in 30 years.

Y'know I probably do prefer Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules to Blizzard and Diary, but that's because Iommi is the man and Ozzy is a fool. In a stark assessment, the two Ozzy records are perhaps more cohesive. Heaven & Hell, while hailed as this magnificent return to form, has definite filler on it. It's just that the highs are so fucking high.

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3 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

I never said BATM was better than Kill 'Em All. KEM is a great album and, yes, in a different galaxy compared to BATM in terms of innovation. It is still finding its way though, with some throwback classic heavy metal tropes. They didn't know they were inventing thrash metal at the time.

I listened to the first track of the first album you posted. The Swedish one. It sounded like Van Halen to me, at least vocally which is what gave it its identity. I'm not sure why this would be "heavier" than Bark at the Moon (the song) which is fast and has a blistering solo. You just reeeally don't like that song. I think you need therapy to unravel the bad touch which took place while BATM was playing.

It occurred to me yesterday that 'Murrica didn't really have much to offer in the heavy music sphere until thrash hit. Twisted Sister is the only classic metal band I can think of which I love, but know you hate (and they found their first success in the UK). Aforementioned Van Halen never did it for me, although I can accept the guitar playing innovation.

I need to check the shelf*. I think the only American album I have from the 70s is Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies, which is decent, but not pushing any musical boundaries.

But you gave us slaves and the blues, so cheers for that.

*EDIT:

Jimi Hendrix. Goddammit. Technically American, but with an English band and management.

The Stooges, Fun House. 1970. I got this for my birthday one year because I was told I needed schooling in proto-metal. It is very enjoyable, if a bit too alternative in places.

KISS: Dynasty (ha) and The Elder (HA!). A very much American band. The very epitome of image over substance.

Can't count Rainbow Rising. 

Quiet Riot Metal Health (1983). Good grief this has not aged well. BATM is not remotely as dated as that. 

While maybe never a big deal commercially, the best lesser known US metal act in the early 80's was Manilla Road. Crystal Logic is a stone cold classic.

Studio albums[edit]

 

Manilla Road - Crystal Logic

Manilla Road - Metal

Manilla Road - Invasion

 

 

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