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Track Listing: Let It Die Let Me Hear You Scream Soul Sucker Life Won't Wait Diggin' Me Down Crucify Fearless Time I Want It More Latimer's Mercy I Love You All

Heavy metal heavyweight Ozzy Osbourne has blown the metal world away time and time again, and "Scream" is no exception. The highly anticipated 10th album from the metal legend is heavy, beautiful and awe-inspiring and really shows that no matter how old you are, you can still kick some major ass.

The album opens up with a track called "Let It Die", which begins with an interesting guitar bit accompanied by a percussive shaker. The guitar bit sounds very unique, with light effects. The song transitions from a slow introduction to a short introductive solo, and then transitions into the base of the actual song. The first verse is devoid of guitar, but picks up about halfway through. Ozzy's lyrics seem to be about various life experiences, but that's always open to debate. I must say, Ozzy's newest musical addition, Gus G, is an absolutely superb guitarist with great energy and skill to match. This is a pretty good track to open the album with. It's a bit slower than what would be expected for an opening track on an Ozzy album, but it makes up for it with a bitchin' solo at the 3:47 mark. After the solo, the song kicks into overdrive and becomes much heavier, with heavier drums, a little more soloing, and then it transitions back into the actual song. This track is pretty long though, with a running time of 6 minutes, 7 seconds!

The next track, "Let Me Hear You Scream", opens with a high-energy riff and slams into a high-octane, screaming, thunderous epic. The verse riffs consist of mostly chug riffs, but they fit the song really well. The whole song is incredibly energetic and bouncy. It makes me think of a kid with ADD bouncing off the walls. A sort of organized chaos, if you will. Everyone's playing on this track is superb. No one misses a beat, and Ozzy, of course keeps his signature vocal style. A bit reminiscent of Blizzard of Ozz. The thing that really stands out on this track is Gus G's playing. While it seems incredibly simplistic and repeated, as you listen, you realize; there's a lot of subtle nuances that you have to pay attention to. His solo on this track is a decent one. It sounds a bit scattered at first, but it gains a lot of momentum and stability in a short amount of time. The choruses on this track have no variation whatsoever, so everything follows a very strong formula. Truly a great track choice for the first single of the album.

The album really hits it's pinnacle with the track "Life Won't Wait", which opens up with beautiful clean instrumentation. When Ozzy's vocals hit your ears, it's like a blow of emotion right to the jaw. This song has the perfect balance of clean and distorted guitars, and seems to be played with a staggering amount of soul and emotion. What sticks out most about this track is the bass, which is very melodic and has an odd sense of love tied to it. The guitars are distorted, but not super heavy until about the 3:00 minute mark, where everything picks up and heads into an intense solo and breakdown. After the breakdown, the guitars are overlayed, one distorted, one clean, which makes for an interesting sound. After this brief heaviness, the song goes back into its clean state, Ozzy sings one more chorus, and the song ends. This is really a stellar track, and it sort of reminds me of the more hippieish music Ozzy wrote so long ago. It really show Ozzy's emotional side, but not in the vein of "Mama I'm Comin'Home." This track is in a league all its own.

This album also features the kind of song most bands never include on their albums; A short, minute long track written specifically for the fans; A neo-classical sounding acoustic affair, in which Ozzy tells us all how much he loves and appreciates our dedicated fandom. This track is short, sweet, and to the point, and was an absolutely fitting way to end the album. The song is so short that there's not much to write about it, but if you're a true Ozzy fan, you'll appreciate it and take it to heart.

All in all, this album goes far deeper than the tracks I've described in this review. Ozzy has had many hits, many misses, and has learned a thing or two about music over the years. With "Scream" you can tell the band still has a way to go in terms of their musical direction. I hear a lot of heavy Zakk influence on this album, but all in all, it's an amazing album from a legendary artist backed by a superb band. I have a feeling that this album will revitalize Ozzy and keep him going for the years to come. He plans to tour extensively in support of "Scream", starting with his six-date Ozzfest.

To buy the CD and for more information, please visit Ozzy's official website.