Throwback Thursday: No More Tears, by Ozzy Osbourne

In 1991 Ozzy Osbourne put out his most (and arguably last) iconic LP since his 1980 solo debut The Blizzard of Ozz: No More Tears. Thanks to the strong guitar work of axe man Zakk Wylde and the lyric writing prowess of Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister and others this album had track after track after track of absolutely killer material. I remember reading in Ozzy's autobiography that there was a great deal of time, effort, and care put into making No More Tears the absolute best album it could possibly be.

No More Tears has some of the most balls to the wall sounds and is the heaviest of Ozzy's noteworthy albums. Honestly, this is in my opinion Wylde's crowning achievement as a guitarist. Afterward he just kind of started copying Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrel and the pinch harmonics became a bit old. Anyway, back to a more positive note, there is a lot of great melody backed by some crunchy pounding chords and blistering melodic solos from Wylde that are nothing to scoff at. it also spawned a great deal of Ozzy's hits, such as: No More Tears, Mama I'm Coming Home, Hellraiser, etc.

Zombie Stomp is probably my favorite track off the whole album. It's just a fun, stomping tune that you can rock out to. Bob Daisley's bass playing really shines through here and in the midst of what is overall a heavy metal song/album you hear the kind of rhythmic and almost funky kind of groove you normally wouldn't associate with Ozzy. The lyrics aren't anything special, but quite frankly they aren't meant to be the focal point of the song. You just get caught up in singing along with a chorus of "Hey! Hey! Do the Zombie Stomp!".

Mama I'm Coming Home is another unexpected number from Ozzy because never once before this had anyone heard anything even remotely as country/southern rock from him as this. You don't often associate twangy 12 string acoustic guitars with the Ozzy sound. Wylde definitely had a lot of fun constructing it and you can feel his passion pouring through in the solo. With the soulful and meaningful lyrics written by Kilmister this is a tune that is understandably one of Osbourne's biggest hits for a good reason.

Despite being primarily a heavy metal album No More Tears is a rather diverse sounding Ozzy album. That probably helped boost his record sales because by doing so he was able to market to a wider audience. That said, even with the marketing stuff aside there is some genuinely powerful work on No More Tears. I used to listen to the whole thing all the way through all the time. It's got all the essential things that a good rock/metal album needs and then some. This was a passion piece, not a formulaic product existing only to make money. I recommend it way more than anything Ozzy has put out in the last 20+ years.

No More Tears receives 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Track List:

1. Mr. Tinkertrain
2. I Don't Want to Change the World
3. Mama I'm Coming Home
4. Desire
5. No More Tears
6. S.I.N.
7. Hellraiser
8. Time After Time
9. Zombie Stomp
10. A.V.H.
11. Road to Nowhere

Buy the album on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/No-More-Tears-Ozzy-Osbourne/dp/B00JRBGGL0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1470986116&sr=8-3&keywords=No+More+Tears