Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9 - Review

The prince of darkness is back! Ozzy Osbourne is back to playing rock 'n' roll, we saw him back on stage, lately (playback or not) performing on different occasions, the last one was for the NFL Kick-off. Ozzy has released his second album in many years - Patient Number 9 - and the madman has followed the same formula as Ordinary Man in the year 2020. Andrew Watt is back in charge as a guitarist and producer, and we once more have a list of superstars (including Taylor Hawkins, click here if you missed my live report of the tribute concert) rather than a proper band. 

The guest list also includes amazing guitar players like Zakk Wylde, Tony Iommi, Jeff Back and Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), and other great musicians like Duff Mc Kagan (Guns n' roses) on Bass, all of them bringing their personal style and the album sounds great (too "modern" but great), apart from the heavy auto-tune you can clearly hear in some songs (I will never get used to it). 

Very catchy is the chorus of "Patient number 9" (but I find the song overall a little too long) and interesting and different is the song with Mike McCready, "Immortal" (great riff). The second part of "No escape from now" (feat. Tony Iommi) is absolutely one of the highest points of the album, while the following "One of those days" (with Eric Clapton) and "A thousand shades" (with Jeff Beck) are probably among the lowest, in my opinion, despite the good quality solos. I really like when "My darkness" accelerates (great guitars by Zakk Wylde) and "Nothing feels right", reminding me of some Ozzmosis atmosphere. I love that album and I really like this song too.

This new album by Ozzy Osbourne has got lots of great moments and it is magnifically played (guitars!) but in my opinion, it's definitely too long: 13 tracks for more than an hour make "Patient Number 9" the longest album in Ozzy's discography. Personally, I would have cut a good portion of this album, but there are for sure very good moments.

Rating 65/100

Top tracks: Degradation rules, My darkness, No escape from now.

Skip tracks: One of those days, Dead and gone, A thousand shades.

Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9 tracklisting:
1. Patient Number 9 feat. Jeff Beck
2. Immortal feat. Mike McCready
3. Parasite feat. Zakk Wylde
4. Mr. Darkness feat. Zakk Wylde
5. One of Those Days feat. Eric Clapton
6. A Thousand Shades feat. Jeff Beck
7. No Escape From Now feat. Tony Iommi
8. Nothing Feels Right feat. Zakk Wylde
9. Evil Shuffle feat. Zakk Wylde
10. Degradation Rules feat. Tony Iommi
11. Dead and Gone
12. God Only Knows
13. Darkside Blues

Lineup:
Ozzy Osbourne | vocals
Zakk Wylde | guitar
Tony Iommi | guitar
Jeff Beck | guitar
Mike McCready | guitar
Eric Clapton | guitar
Robert Trujillo | bass
Duff McKagan | bass
Chris Chaney | bass
Chad Smith | drums
Taylor Hawkins | drums