Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

I have seen Ozzy Osbourne live three times; once with Black Sabbath, once with Gus G., and once with Zakk Wylde. Additionally, I have seen Zakk Wylde live five times; three times with Black Label Society, once as a solo act, and once with Ozzy Osbourne. Both men have done some great work with other artists, but the first time I ever saw either of them live was together; and that meant something significant to me. Also, when I was a young man and discovering Ozzy Osbournce’s music for the first time, I was listening to albums like “Ozzmosis” and “No More Tears,” both of which feature Zakk Wylde, and that meant a lot to me as well.

I have always held “No More Tears” and “Ozzmosis” as two of Osbourne’s greatest albums. These two albums entered my life at a perfect time, young and rebellious Colin Kelly took in every word, and cord and thought these are the masterpieces of Ozzy and Zakk’s work together.

Recently I heard that Ozzy and Zakk are back together, which is great news for me, maybe I will get to see them perform live together again. Also, maybe this review is a little more topical because of this.

Like most people my age, I discovered Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s solo music at the same time. When I was getting my first copy of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” I was also picking up of Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears.” Those were the first two albums with Ozzy on vocals that I ever owned.

Ozzy has had the privilege of working with several amazing guitarists, but I think I have made my favoritism towards Wylde rather clear, and when it comes to the solo era of Ozzy’s career, it is Wylde’s albums and songs that I tend to appreciate uppermost. Obviously, the works of Rhodes and Lee are fantastic, and I have nothing but the highest praise for both of those two men, but Zakk is my main man so that is where my bias rests.

So here is a challenging question; what is Ozzy Osbourne’s greatest solo song?

When tackling a such a question, it makes sense to think about things like the guitarists, and how best do we answer that subjective question with our own subjective tastes? Well, I like Wylde, and my subjective tastes push me towards “No More Tears.” That is one approach that one can take, and so I shall take it.

“No More Tears” the song was one of the very first solo Ozzy songs I ever heard, and I remember being so impressed that I concluded right there and then that this must be Ozzy’s best song. I held that belief for a long time, and now pressing my thoughts on the matter, I discover that my opinion has not altered much over the expanse of time that has passed.

There are many angles from which to argue the finality that “No More Tears” as the single greatest Ozzy song. As I earlier embellished, the mere involvement of Zakk Wylde, is a supportive reasoning for the greatness of “No More Tears.” However, that is a stance to take only if someone’s loyalty to Wylde is as true as my own. There are other reasons to conclude the case of “No More Tears” championship status.

At seven minutes and twenty-three seconds “No More Tears” is the longest on the album. The opening bass rift is iconic, it hits rapidly little a hard series of fast peaks and valleys. Equally memorable is the keyboard adding the accompaniment. Best of all the opening lead guitar intro. The guitar on the whole album is fantastic, presumably that is super obvious, I spent half of this review talking about how great Zakk is. Zakk’s involvement on this album cannot be understated. Obviously, his guitar work, good god, what a man, what a legend, I am not wise enough in the ways of electric guitar to say much of anything informative about how great Zakk Wylde is on “No More Tears,” however his contributions go far beyond that.

Ozzy Osbourne was, and probably still is, a massive alcoholic; so is Zakk Wylde. Osbourne more or less lost entire years of his life being blackout drunk, which is impressive, but terrifying. Whilst creating the album “No More Tears” Ozzy was attempting to clean himself up and go sober and this greatly affected his confidence. Seeing the world through the lens of reality was a frightful experience for Ozzy after being so long intoxicated. Luckily for Ozzy, Zakk Wylde took control of the situation and cowrote nearly the entire album with him. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time Zakk took on song writing on such a grand scale, and he hit a home run. This may have been the moment where Zakk ascending from badass guitar hero to rock god.

Ozzy has always been fortunate in that he has had the privilege and advantage of working with other great musicians to help him create his music, so much so, many harsher music critics discredit him as a song writer, which is going too far the in the other direction. Nonetheless it is true that from Black Sabbath working with Toni and Geezer, to his solo career working with the likes of Rhodes and Lee, Ozzy has made great allies and friends along the way. In this story Wylde is the friend and ally that made the difference, and a huge difference at that.

Back to “No More Tears” the album and the song are very dark. The song is about a serial killer targeting female victims in the red-light district. The line “No More Tears” signifies the death of the murderer’s victims, as in, they stop crying when they are dead. So yes, very dark. We should not be surprised though, this is coming to us from the same two men who wrote songs like “Suicide Solution” and “Suicide Messiah;” and now that I think about those two songs might make a good two part music review.

The album and song “No More Tears” was a huge success, though the song “Mama I’m Coming Home” was the breakout song of the album, the title track is the song I love the most from Ozzy’s entire repertoire. Taking some negative and making it a positive has been how I have navigated my entire life, and I feel like Ozzy has done the same. He took all his pain and suffering from his alcoholism and elsewhere and he put it into a very dark album, and that album, and all it’s negativity trapped within created an enormous event of positivity. Ozzy fans had more great music to enjoy. Zakk Wylde became a great song writer. Ozzy Osbourne found some success at being happy and functional while sober, and by doing so renewed his confidence and comfort level with by himself. A song about a man murdering woman is about as unsettling a topic as could be discussed, yet a amazing piece of art has come from it, and an unquantifiable amount of joy surrounds it. For all reasons, my vote for best Ozzy Osbourne song goes to “No More Tears.”

That is just me thought.

Until next month keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

Avantasia - Ghost in the Moon

For the first time in twelve years I have failed to write consistent content on this music blog. Work is killing me, so that did not help, but the main reason I needed a hiatus is that I spent twenty-six days in Europe. Why does this matter? Because I ended the trip with a return to Hamburg Germany, where I saw my favorite active group Avantasia.

Six years ago I went to Germany expressly to see Avantasia in Berlin and Hamburg, and those two nights are still the best nights of my entire life, so whilst planning another to Europe I naturally decided to try my best to re-visit Avantasia, in Hamburg; and this time I brought a friend.

I bookended our trip with two good ideas, we start the trip in London for my friend birthday, and we end the trip in Hamburg for Avantasia. It was good idea, but it came with some complications. This plan has us in Amsterdam the day before the concert and getting to Hamburg by train from Amsterdam was a lot harder than I remembered. Most of the scheduled trains were sold out and my credit card was not working online for some reason. We ended up leaving two hours later than I would have liked and it cost more than I anticipated, and we had three transfers along the way which made the trip an hour longer then it would have been otherwise. Then there was nearly an hour delay because of some technical problems with the train. Lastly construction was blocking our way to the hostel. By the time we checked into our room and dropped off our bags, I was feeling like the world was conspiring against me seeing this show, but I am determined man, and this was Avantansia, and I was not going to miss this.

We hop the underground train and get to the concert hall just in time to slam a beer and find a place to stand. Garbed in my Canadian flag I stood at the ready telling my friend a story he had heard me tell dozens of times, the story of Tobias Sammet and the creation of Avantasia. Then the lights hit, and the band emerged, and out walked the man of the hour Tobias, and opening the show with what I think is my favorite song from the newest album, “Ghost in the Moon.”

“Ghost in the moon light.”

That opening line came through loud and clear and a great joy filled me. I had done it; I had returned to Hamburg and Avantasia.

Anyway, enough about me, my adventures are less important than the music being discuss.

Earlier this year Avantasia released their eighth studio album “Moonglow.” As we have seen before Tobias has left his story open for interpretation. Some spectre is questioning their own existence or something? I have not figured it out yet, but I suspect Tobias would be supportive of any theory I concoct. I could surely google theories and piece together a cleaver theory, but I have not done that, so let us continue.

Now that we are at the eighth studio album of super group Avantasia, we can safely say who the primary line up now consists of. From the beginning there was always the core four singers, Michael Kiske, Jorn Lande, Bob Cately, and Tobias Sammet himself. Ever since “The Mystery of Time” album Ronnie Atkins and Eric Martin have established themselves as main stays. The only wild care left that needs to be discussed is Geoff Tate, who performed with Avantasia on this most recent tour, and he was awesome, like super awesome live, so he is a welcome inclusion if he wishes to remain. That makes seven, like Seven Angels; the judgement of heaven; fire will burn us away.

With that lineup in mind, it makes sense that every album going forward would have one song being performed by one of the primary singers along with Tobias. Another novelty that has held fast throughout all eight albums is a “solo” performance by Tobias.

“Lost in Space,” and “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose” both proved to be some of the biggest hit songs from Avantasia, and they are songs feature only one singer, the man, Sammet.

I love every singer in Avantasia, a lot. The only one I do not admire with the full weight of my being is maybe Eric Martin. In many ways Martin is the odd man out, coming more from a pop rock background while everyone else is a hard rock, progressive rock, or metal in origin and style; but the man so happy to be there, and he is doing a really good job. Furthermore, I met Eric Martin six years ago in Hamburg and he was a great guy. I feel like we are friends, even though I doubt he remembers me. So yeah, back to the point, I love every singer.

Where was I going before my Eric Martin tangent? Oh right, I love all the singers, but I do hold a special place in my heart for Sammet’s lone performances. He is the man that made it all happen. He is the greatest song writer active today. I love it when he gets a chance to shine on this own creation, and I love songs like “Lost in Space,” “Mystery of a Blood Red Rose,” and most recently “Ghost in the Moon.”

The first single off of “Moonglow” was “The Raven Child,” which was an eleven minute fifteen second epic featuring Jorn Lande and Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kursch, so that was amazing and is a major reason I love Avantasia so much. Who releases an eleven-minute epic as their first single? The guest singer is Kursch from Blind Guardian, I do not know what more I could have asked for because I am getting more than I ever would have thought to ask for.

The second single is the title track “Moonglow,” this song was much more radio friendly and features Candice Night. It was great, nice music video, great song, I have always loved Candice. Good stuff.

I think the third single was “Starlight,” great song featuring Ronnie. Another great song.

Anyway, “Ghost in the Moon,” the opening track, where only Tobias sings, and it is almost ten minutes in length. Exactly what I needed from this album and exactly what I wanted to hear in Hamburg.

“Ghost in the Moon” is two songs really. The first part of the song, (the first song) is really very energetic and upbeat, but the lyrics, and there are lots of lyrics, tell a tale of the dark side of fame, or at least I think that is what is going on. The metaphor for a moth drawn to flame is in full effect in “Ghost in the Moon,” with the light of the sun replace flame and the Ghost replacing the moth. There is pressures and forces at play pushing the artist, the ghost, towards the light, but the encouragement is not all selfless motivations or kindly and wishful. The powers that be want the Ghost in the moonglow to exists for selfish and shallow reasons, shattering our dreams into something other than originally conceived.

It is also possible I am projecting some of the ideas from the Scarecrow trilogy onto “Moonglow” and “Ghost in the Moon.” I mean… we are chasing the ghost in “Ghost in the Moon” that implies that it is a different entity (or figment) from the narrator.

The second part of the song (the second song) begins after a noticeable silence right around the seven minute twenty second mark. The song reopens with an even more aggressive but controlled measure, and the lyrics take on a different, more aware, perspective. Those dreams of standing in the light, they become something else, or maybe we finally see them for what they always were;

“Megalo-maniacal dreams.”

I wonder if there is a deliberate connection between that line and the cover of Michael Sembello’s “Maniac” featuring Eric Martin?

It is a little thing, but I really like how Tobias deliveries that simple line;

“Megalo-maniac dreams.”

If I am right and “Ghost in the Moon” is at least in part a metaphor about fame, and how stepping into the light is empowering and exciting, but also hazardous and sometimes deeply compromising, then I think “megalo-maniac” is not a bad description for such dreams. Ego can, and has, fueled many celebrities and artists ambitions. Corporate compromises have poisoned and destroyed lots of artistic music and the happiest of many would be poet musicians. Take all of that and warp it in a mystical metaphor and you have an appropriate concept for an Avantasia album. Maybe that is what “Moonglow” the album is about. I suspect I am at least partially correct in thinking that is what “Ghost in the Moon” is about.

Long post short, life is good, Avantasia is the best. Get listening North America, I cannot get them to come here by myself.

- King of Braves