Everything Still Feels Right - A Review of Ozzy Osbourne's Patient Number Nine

Few people would have thought that heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne would ever release thirteen studio albums and continue performing live at age seventy-three. At this point, showing this living legend a little bit of gratitude, humility and respect would be quite fitting but that's tough to expect in times when people even insult a dedicated, loyal and peaceful monarch who might have been the most influential woman in the history of mankind upon her death. Anyway, this review shall focus on Patient Number Nine and ignore everything that is wrong with our contemporary society for a while.

Right from the start, it must be made clear that Patient Number Nine can't equal Ozzy Osbourne's greatest hours early in his solo career and it might even be a step down from diversified comeback effort Ordinary Man that has surprised me very positively. Nevertheless, even a weaker Ozzy Osbourne effort is still an above average hard rock and heavy metal release that is worth a genre fan's attention, praise and recognition.

The numerous different cooperations included on this output offer some great entertainment. Opening title track ''Patient Number Nine'' featuring seventy-eight year old guitar hero Jeff Beck might be the best of the bunch with a moody atmospheric opening, tongue-in-cheek radio play sections, slow but thunderous verses, melodic and catchy chorus and simple yet energetic instrumental solos. This song has the potential to stand the test of time and should be included on any potentially upcoming compilation detailing the Prince of Darkness' remarkable career.

Another excellent tune is Ozzy Osbourne's cooperation with former Black Sabbath colleague and old friend Tony Iommi on ''Degradation Rules''. The guitarist's atmospheric, melodic and slow musicianship suits the singer's emotional, gloomy and mournful voice splendidly. The wonderful bluesy harmonica sections are the cherry atop the cake. This song certainly would have deserved a spot on the last release by Black Sabbath.

Other than these two obvious highlights, this record offers numerous atmospheric, harmonious and slow songs that fit the vocalist's energy, performance and stamina at this age. The times when Ozzy Osbourne was able to sing ferocious heavy metal songs might be gone but the album offers plenty of playful blues rock, catchy hard rock and moody doom metal soundscapes. The best selection of this category might be ''Nothing Feels Right'', featuring regular cooperator Zakk Wylde whose entire career has been influenced by Ozzy Osbourne. This song might not sound spectacular upon first contact but the sluggish verses, melodic chorus and introspective lyrics suit the Prince of Darkness' current style very well and represent the entire album accurately.

This studio album certainly has several flaws that need to be pointed out. This release includes a few too many songs and some good average tunes that fail to leave a deeper mark and must go down as filler material. This album would sound much stronger if it had only consisted of this effort's eight or nine greatest cuts. Up next, the songwriting is at times a little bit uninspired, repetitive and predictable. Many songs are very similar in style with slow verses, catchy choruses and self-referential lyrics with a nostalgic touch. A few more adventurous songwriting ideas that were still included on the underrated predecessor would have rated this album up. Finally, the production would have needed some more oomph to exploit the material's full potential. Especially the guitar sound is at times muddy and lacking technical skills while the vocals are overprocessed and include a little bit too much autotune.

Nevertheless, it's not only amazing that Ozzy Osbourne has released a thirteenth studio album but the final result is more than decent and makes for a very good blues rock, hard rock and doom metal effort that should be appreciated by fans of the living legend under the current circumstances. Despite numerous disrespectful reviews all across the internet, I'm not standing alone on this issue since two of my very best friends are massive fans of Ozzy Osbourne and know his discography much better than I do and they have both told me separately to appreciate this effort a great deal. While Patient Number Nine might not be able to compete with Ozzy Osbourne's greatest hours, it's still a charismatic, diversified and entertaining effort that outclasses numerous efforts made by much younger and hungrier bands who might offer faster musicianship but less charisma. Even a good average effort by Ozzy Osbourne still beats the majority of similar genre releases and is therefore worth genre fans' attention, respect and time at the end of the day.

Final Rating: 75%