The patient is rather alive – Newspaper Kommersant No. 170 (7371) of 09/15/2022

Black Sabbath lead singer and hard rock icon Ozzy Osbourne has collaborated with the genre’s top guitarists to release Patient Number 9, his 13th solo album. Who are the main characters of the new release, tells Boris Barabanov.

Ozzy Osbourne began work on “Patient Number 9” just a few days after the release of the previous album, the first in ten years, “Ordinary Man” (2020). That record was regarded by many as a creative testament of the musician. While working on Ordinary Man, Ozzy Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had to cancel his tour after the release. But the alliance with pop producer Andrew Watt brought new songs that both the public and critics liked, moreover, collaboration with the young musician was a great creative impetus for Ozzy. He found the right mix between the classic rock sound and the energy of the tiktok generation. “Ordinary Man” featured Elton John, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N’ Roses, but rappers Post Malone and Travis Scott appeared next to them on the imprint.

Without slowing down, Osbourne and Watt moved on to a new album. The participation of the dinosaurs of rock has become even more significant. The younger generation, this time, apart from Andrew Watt, was represented only by Ali Tamposi, whose collaboration with Ozzy also began on “Ordinary Man”.

In early summer, Ozzy Osbourne underwent a surgical operation, the details of which were not reported to the press, and on June 24 he released the lead single of the new album with a guitar solo by 78-year-old Jeff Beck. This is hard rock of the strongest mix, which has neither flirting with music from the charts, nor the dreamy lyricism typical of Beck’s solo works (it will appear later, in another collaborative number – “A Thousand Shades”). The seven-minute canvas does not leave in memory either the strong melodic moves characteristic of Ozzy’s albums of the 1980-1990s, or the riffs in the spirit of Black Sabbath. But there is a sense of scale and significance. In the video clip of “Patient Number 9” you can see Ozzy’s drawings – during Jeff Beck’s solo, the demons that the vocalist is possessed come to life on the screen.

“Patient Number 9” in the new album is followed not just by numbers with invited guests, these are songs – informational occasions.

The second on the album is “Immortal”, which features guitar from Pearl Jam member Mike McCready. The singer has not recorded with anyone from the Seattle grunge scene before. However, the fact that the guitarist belongs to the legendary grunge line-up does not change anything in the stylistic vector of the album. “Immortal” is a typical Ozzy Osbourne hard-rock piece that tells the story of a vampire who survived eras and kingdoms.

On the third track, “Parasite”, Ozzy reunites with Zakk Wylde, whose distinctive guitar sound was instrumental in the commercial success of Osbourne’s 1988-1995 albums. For fans of Ozzy, the question is usually important, whether at this stage Zakk Wylde is in his accompanying line-up and whether there are songs with characteristic guitar “braces” in the new repertoire. There are four of them in the Patient Number 9 album. In his collaborations with Wilde, Ozzy has demonstrated again and again the ability to replicate his own clichés, whether it’s creepy Black Sabbath horror (“Parasite”, “Evil Shuffle”), an arena ballad with predictable tempo changes (“Mr. “(“Nothing Feels Right”).

On two songs, “No Escape From Now” and “Degradation Rules”, Ozzy’s Black Sabbath partner Tony Iommi provides guitar support. A couple with almost 55 years of experience of interaction gives exactly the quality of “heaviness” that the average hard-n-heavy fan expects from her. No disappointments, no news, except that the harmonica in “Degradation Rules” refreshes the landscape. It was recorded by Ozzy himself.

Among the instrumentalists who gathered this time in the studio of Ozzy Osbourne and Andrew Watt (Dave Navarro from Jane’s Addiction, Duff McKagan from Guns N’Roses, Josh Hommie from Queens Of The Stone Age), the parts recorded by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins stand apart, tragically passed away in March of this year. After his death, a real cult rapidly developed around him – through the efforts of fellow musicians and, above all, bandmates, as evidenced by the composition of the participants in a recent memorial concert at Wembley Stadium.

Finally, the role of the most expensive guest in the album “Patient Number 9” was played by Eric Clapton. Having learned about this, music lovers noted the presence on the recording of two legendary guitarists of The Yardbirds – Eric Clapton was replaced in this capacity by Jeff Beck. It is known that Ozzy negotiated with the third legend of The Yardbirds – Jimmy Page. However, he refused, citing being busy with his own projects.

“One Of Those Days” is truly the best of the album’s high-profile duets, not because of Clapton’s expectedly impressive passages, but because of the song’s overall vibe, looser, more bluesy, more Jimi Hendrix than The Yardbirds.

The three final tracks did not bring any special sensations. In addition, it is possible that we owe the appearance of these 100% Osborne epic paintings to women. The author of the hits of Kamiya Kabeyo Ali Tamposi, due to her age, could not miss the era of the “great and terrible” Ozzy, the king of darkness and the bat-eater. In his world, Tamposi appeared in the 2010s thanks to the commercial genius of his wife and manager Sharon. And now, thanks to two women, Ozzy recorded the second album in a row, which cannot be ignored. It is this, and not the parts of Eric Clapton and other stars, that is the main sensation of Patient No. 9.