The PERFECT 80s Hard Rock "slow" song. Not a ballad, but moody and great lyrics; a case where the kind of broad-stroke 80s hard rock platitudes pay off in dividends.
Watch:
Holy shit! Jason's back!!
I don't understand what the "Short-Form Vignette" description means in terms of where, exactly, this is premiering on Friday, August 13, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Will this be on YouTube? Peacock? Angry Orchard.com?
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Flying Lotus - You're Dead
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Drug Church - Prude
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - New Model
King Woman - Doubt EP
King Woman - Bury (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Wands
• O: The Fool
• King of Wands
Started rebuilding my writing routine last night. This is a conscious act of Will that, essentially, is a brand new journey, as all my positive inertia is long gone, and I will have to overcome the entropy of neglect.
The second track on 1991's No More Tears, the album that solidified me as a fan when it came out, and that was so good it actually hindered my acceptance of its follow-up, 1995's Ozmosis.
The guitars on this record are so goddamn gorgeous. I really feel like producers Duane Baron and John Purdell, who had not worked with Ozzy previously, took the sonic direction begun on 1988's No Rest for the Wicked and perfected it, and nowhere is that more evident than when this track starts.
Also, Lemmy's songwriting is all over this record, and I feel like it really helped elevate the lyrics, which might be the best of Ozzy's solo career.
The first Ozzy Osbourne album that I spent any substantial time getting to know was 1987's Tribute to Randy Rhoads, so even though this live album came out well after the first, Jet Records era of Ozzy's solo career, that is the era that initially defined Ozzy as a solo artist for me. And believe it or not, Sabbath came later.
There's something magical about the Ozzy/Randy albums. I'd offer my suggestion that 1981's Diary of a Madman is a far superior effort than 1980's Blizzard of Ozz, but that's not to put Blizzard down. It's fantastic, and opening track, "I Don't Know," while not really having much to say, is a banger. Cool seeing it performed here, live, even if this 1981 performance on live tv in Rochester, NY is one of the more sedate Ozzy performances I've seen. Hangovers all around would be my guess.
It's Friday, and that means the new edition of Fangoia's weekly newsletter, The Terror Teletype, landed in my inbox while I slept. Reading this brief email packed with genre news and goodies is one of the little events that I look forward to every week. This time, Editor-in-Chief Phil Noble's editorial is a lovely little eulogy for Ozzy.
Also, later in the WTF section, Fango links to a 1988 television commercial featuring Ozzy promoting his then-latest album, No Rest for the Wicked.
WTF indeed. Throughout the first two decades of his solo career, Ozzy always flirted with having one foot in camp, and I think it was a reaction to the televangelist backlash and the general fears conservatives displayed toward his music, Heavy Metal in general, and Horror movies. Bark At the Moon's ridiculous costuming plays a bit differently when you think that maybe the idea was to present a Horror movie aesthetic constructed to make people laugh at the people who decried it as frightening or depraved.
NCBD Addendum:
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, primarily because I'll need to locate the original series and re-read it, but Black Mask's CALEXIT returned this week with the first issue of CALEXIT: The Battle for Universal City. Writer Matteo Pizzolo returns with new artist C. Granda and colorist James Offredi to deliver a gorgeous new chapter:
I'd seen this solicited but almost dismissed it as a hallucination. The original, three-issue series ran back in 2017-2018, and while we covered it on Drinking with Comics, and I know I liked it, I really remember nothing else about it. It will be nice this weekend to sit down, read the old series and jump directly into this new one. Also, really hope Black Mask can make a comeback, so of course I'll support what they do. They had a good couple of years at the end of the last decade, and then kind of disappeared. Would love to see more Black Mask books on the shelf again.
Playlist:
Lady Gaga - Mayhem
Ozzy Osbourne - Shot in the Dark (single)
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
Wake the Devil - Angel's Won't Cry (single)
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Two of Pentacles
• Two of Cups
• Ten of Pentacles
A change in balance leads to wealth.
I'm always hesitant to interpret concepts like 'wealth' at face value when dealing with the archetypes utilized in the cards. More likely, this is a nod to an upcoming triumph in undoing the negative inertia that has seized my brain when it comes to writing.
I had zero idea such a thing as this existed until a few minutes ago. I can tell by the set that this is during Dave's CBS years, of which I've only ever seen isolated clips. But to think that a theatre full of folks went in to see the Letterman show in 1998 and were treated to a fully reunited Black Sabbath - yes, that's Bill Ward playing the drums! - is just wonderful!
I love this clip because you can see how Ozzy starts the performance with a healthy dose of reserve, probably not having played a television show with his old Birmingham mates since 1978's Top of the Pops, and then Dave's crowd begins to react to his boisterous prompts, he really starts to come alive. That's my big takeaway from having seen Ozzy live four or five times: he was the consummate showman. Makes sense when you consider he performed up until two weeks before his death.
People talk about how Ozzy never really wrote anything and that somehow makes him lesser, however, anyone who saw this man live knows he is a voice and a performer above all things.
Probably my second favorite Ozzy track, "Shot in the Dark" is the final track on 1986's The Ultimate Sin. I knew this song from its inception as a single, and it wasn't until the early 90s that I heard the entire album from which it hails. At that time, I wasn't a fan of the album, just the song, which seemed like a moody anomaly on an otherwise, at-first-glance collection of so-so 80s hard rock (It didn't help that my high school girlfriend and her two older sisters played Ozzy non-stop for the three years we dated. Forced familiarity can indeed breed contempt, a lesson we could have applied to our relationship, as well).
Maybe ten years ago or so, I gave The Ultimate Spin another chance, and found that, not only did I remember a lot of the tracks, but I remembered them kindly. Excitedly, even. Since then, this has become a go-to Ozzy record for me. As much as I love and respect the man, I don't gel with a lot of his solo work. Riding high off No More Tears, I was ready to embrace Ozzmosis when it landed in 1995, but the lead single, "Perry Mason," just seemed like such a ridiculous song. Like Ozzy had somehow gone all the way around the bend into self-parody. The album didn't sit much better with me, and that was the last of his solo work I paid attention to until Mr. Brown got me into 2020's Ordinary Man circa 2021. Producer Andrew Watt ended up being the best thing to happen to the Ozzman in decades, as I'd rank Ordinary Man and Patient No. 9 as instant classics. Both records are of a caliber that, while the early stuff is still untouchable, hold their own.
I've made it my mission to comb through his catalogue and see if I missed anything.
NCBD:
Great pull list this week. Let's go!
Void Rivals has been picking up steam as we move toward the Quintesson War's start in upcoming issue 25. We have an army of Skuxxoids, Hot Rod and Springer, the Quintessons, Zerta, and Cobra La. That's A LOT of tension points for a story, and somehow, Kirkman balances them all perfectly, letting out little bits of steam here and there so we know that in a couple of issues, things are going to go OFF!
Zander Cannon's Sleep is the, ah, sleeper hit of 2025. Seriously, this book is fantastic! When I first picked up issue one, I thought the art would be a tonal aberration I wouldn't be able to get over. Turns out, it's the exact opposite. Cannon's style belies a dark underbelly that froths with blood and bad things.
Minor Arcana quickly proved itself as another burgeoning Jeff Lemire masterpiece, a la Fishflies. This time, however, there's a long run and a more involved plot. The sleepy seaside small town setting and exploration of a failed fortune teller are masks for something bigger and much more malevolent, and the reveals come slow and steady, once again showcasing the deep-seated influence of David Lynch in this man's storytelling.
Almost as if the Universe sent this cover to pay homage to Ozzy's passing. I have no idea what this book is about, but when I saw the title/cover combo, I knew I'd have to track it down.
James Tynion & Michael Walsh's Exquisite Corpses continues barreling along its destructive path and you're damn straight I'll once again have a front row seat! I have a feeling this book is going to really surprise us along the way. Not everything is as straightforward as it seems.
Watch:
For reasons I simply cannot fathom, about two years ago I walked away from HBOs Doom Patrol series and never came back. This wasn't intentional; I'm not really sure how I got like this, but I tend to leave shows - even shows I adore - hanging. Something kicked in again last week, and I rewatched the entire second season and am now perched atop the first episode of Season Three, which is unfamiliar ground for me.
I can't stress how much I love this show. It's absurd, moving, and outright bat shit. The look of it is among my favorite looks to any show or film - the lighting is soft, dark, but still colorful. The set design is symmetrical, cohesive and downright creepy A.F., when it needs to be. And the original, Dada-esque undertones Grant Morrison so lovingly wove through his run on the book in the 80s are always ever-present. These elements would be disparate and jarring in the hands of most, but this show blends them all perfectly.
Playlist:
Deee-Lite - Dewdrops in the Garden
Deee-Lite - World Clique
Primus - Antipop
Hot Stove Jimmy - It's a System...
Lard - The Last Temptation of Reid
Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes
Deadfly Buchowski - Russian Doll E.P.
Zombi - 2020
Zombi - Direct Inject
Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason (single)
Ozzy Osbourne - Down to Earth
Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• Two of Cups
• Four of Wands
Creative emotional support is needed to reclaim a regular sense of balance, i.e. in this case, duty. I remain in a non-writing paradigm. I did begin re-reading Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie, a much-needed and until now shirked necessity for, you know, working on the sequel. That's a major step for me, but I need to get back to a regular routine and it just seems to be drifting further and further away. A day stolen here or there just doesn't amount to much, and I think the cards are telling me that I need to ask K for help.
Man, 2025 can suck a big bag O' clown peen. I mean, what the fuck? As per my tradition, thus begins Ozzy Week, where I'll post and celebrate the Demon Prince of Rock!!!
"No More Tears" is easily my favorite track and album from Ozzy's solo career, which is a pretty uneven solo career. Of course, the same can be said of all post-original line-up members of Black Sabbath once they tried to make it on their own.
The 80s were a tumultuous time for Rock Gods - too much blow and a frenzy of one-upmanship, and I'm sure they hardly knew which way was up. But this track - man, I remember the night I first heard this on 103.5 The BLAZE, Chicago's pre-Grunge rock radio station. I remember the DJ saying, "Here's the new track from Ozzy Osbourne," and I remember the bass grabbed me instantly.
Of course, bassist Mike Inez would go on to Alice in Chains greatness, and guitarist Zakk Wylde would go on to... wear a kilt. But on September 17, 1991, Ozzy released what I consider his crowning achievement, and the entire album ROCKS.
