OZZY OSBOURNE – Patient Number 9 (2022) *HQ*

Ozzy is back! Tomorrow OZZY OSBOURNE will release “Patient Number 9“, the new album from the 73-year-old former Black Sabbath singer and heavy metal “Prince of Darkness.”
Patient Number 9 is Osbourne’s first new material since his 2020 studio album, Ordinary Man, and it features musical contributions from classic rock guitar great Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde, Eric Clapton and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready.
As for the content of “Patient Number 9,” its lyrics address the plight of a mental hospital patient, possibly held against their will as there is a yearning to leave and go home. Last year, Osbourne said it was written about Sharon Osbourne, the media personality who’s his longtime wife and manager.

When Ozzy Osbourne released his album ‘Ordinary Man’ in 2020, it seemed like the perfect swan song – emotive, reflective, and almost elegiac in parts, it was a surprisingly vulnerable examination of mortality from the original heavy metal icon.
But Ozzy has a terrible track record when it comes to retirement, and work on ”Patient Number 9” seemingly began as soon as Ordinary Man hit the shelves, with producer Andrew Watt once again overseeing the project.

Fortunately, ”Patient Number 9” reintroduces some of the bombast largely missing on its predecessor. As it turns out, working with some of the most iconic guitarists on the planet has away of injecting flair into even the most reflective song; opener title track ‘Patient Number 9’ calls back to the same emotive, epic quality as Under The Graveyard or Today Is The End, but it’s not long before the guitar wizardry of Jeff Beck starts to shine through. Musically it’s a mix of pop-metal glitter and hard-rock grit.
There’s also plenty to be excited about with the return of the Ozzy/Tony Iommi pairing. Sidestepping anything remotely Sabbath (in fact, the most Sabbath-like track is the Wylde-led Evil Shuffle), Iommi instead brings a sense of heft and gravitas that sounds practically apocalyptic.

Wylde’s jabbing guitar in ‘Parasite’ provides a head-banging riff that reminds you of Osbourne’s huge role in the formation of heavy metal. And ‘Nothing Feels Right’, again with Wylde, is spiked with hazy psychedelia.
Osbourne even gets to play around with his longtime Beatles obsession in ‘A Thousand Shades’.

Despite the many health issues Ozzy has had to contend with over the past few years, his voice sounds great throughout the album – well, ‘great in the Ozzy style’, and the proclamation ‘I’ll never die cos I’m immortal’ is delivered with a cheeky wink and defiant edge.
The sheer vitality of tracks like ‘Mr. Darkness’, ‘Degradation Blues’ and ‘Dead And Gone’ is truly delightful, bringing back some of the wild-eyed energy of Ozzy’s past but without feeling as throwaway as some songs on the previous album.

While perhaps not as emotionally loaded as Ordinary Man, ”Patient Number 9” better captures the mischievous, defiant energy of heavy metal’s original madman. Even stacked for comparison against some of the most legendary musicians on the planet, Ozzy is an icon like no other. He’s a man who took heavy metal from the back streets of Birmingham to conquer the world.

Through it all, Osbourne sounds full of life, a contrast to the medical issues that have plagued him recently. And unlike Ordinary Man, Patient Number 9 is a more focused work; the pieces fit together more easily, most likely a result of producer Watt’s growing relationship with Ozzy.
‘Degradation Rules’, one of two songs with Iommi, even achieves the nearly impossible: a close-to-great solo track four decades removed from the classic Blizzard Of Ozz.
There was speculation around Ordinary Man’s release that it could be Osbourne’s final album. The strong, rocking ”Patient Number 9” proves that theory wrong. Don’t count him out just yet.
Highly Recommended

01. Patient Number 9 (feat. Jeff Beck)
02. Immortal (feat. Mike McCready)
03. Parasite (feat. Zakk Wylde)
04. No Escape From Now (feat. Tony Iommi)
05. One of Those Days (feat. Eric Clapton)
06. A Thousand Shades (feat. Jeff Beck)
07. Mr. Darkness (feat. Zakk Wylde)
08. Nothing Feels Right (feat. Zakk Wylde)
09. Evil Shuffle (feat. Zakk Wylde)
10. Degradation Rules (feat. Tony Iommi)
11. Dead and Gone
12. God Only Knows
13. Darkside Blues

Pre order:
www.amazon.com/Patient-Number-9-Ozzy-Osbourne/dp/B0B4KXHVCJ