Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 102

ARTIST:  Ozzy Osbourne
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  Bark at the Moon
LABEL:  Epic
YEAR:  1983
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Waiting for Darkness"
NOTES:  This was the last of the classic-era Ozzy Osbourne albums I picked up.  It was quite a bit different than Ozzy's first couple of releases, mostly due to the addition of Jake Lee on guitar to replace the deceased Randy Rhoads.  Lee had a significantly different style than Rhoads, one more suited to a traditional heavy metal sound than the more classically influenced style of Rhoads.  The title track is the most well-known song on the album.  By and large this was a heavier release without a lot of filler, a common problem with Ozzy albums.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 88

ARTIST:  Prong
ORIGIN:  New York, NY (United States)
TITLE:  Prove You Wrong
LABEL:  Epic
YEAR:  1991
GENRE:  Crossover/Thrash Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Irrelevant Thoughts"
NOTES:  This album is seriously worth listening to just for the amazing drumming.  Ted Parsons has always been an amazing drummer but he really showed that off on this release.  I had not really listened to this a lot lately, but used to quite a bit when I was in high school.  Every once in awhile, I will get an urge to listen to some crossover and that is when this album comes out.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 87

ARTIST:  Ozzy Osbourne
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  The Ozzman Cometh
LABEL:  Epic
YEAR:  1997
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Mr. Crowley"
NOTES:  I do not have a lot of Greatest Hits albums.  Usually there has to be something that makes the album worth the money, bonus tracks or something.  It has not always been like this though.  Certain artists lend themselves well to a Greatest Hits album.  Ozzy is one of those, due to the large amount of filler material that shows up, particularly on his more recent albums.  This did feature the unreleased track "Back on Earth" which is a decent song, for later Ozzy material.  It also featured demo tracks of early Sabbath material and an interview with Ozzy, that I am not sure I have ever listened to.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 79

ARTIST:  Prong
ORIGIN:  New York, NY
TITLE:  Rude Awakening
LABEL:  Epic
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Industrial Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Mansruin"
NOTES:  I had heard of Prong before.  I think everyone had heard "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck". But this was the first album I had heard.  I liked a lot of industrial metal at the time and I knew that Prong had taken that turn.  For a long time, I listened to this album every day.  It has been quite awhile now and I definitely prefer their earlier crossover material, but this was for the most part my indoctrination into the band.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 54

ARTIST:  Ozzy Osbourne
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  The Ultimate Sin
LABEL:  Epic
YEAR:  1986
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Secret Loser"
NOTES:  For some reason Ozzy does not ever play anything off of this album live anymore.  That is a shame because I believe that this is one of the Ozzman's greatest and most underrated albums.  There is no filler on this one.  Every single song is heavy in its own way.  It also has some terrific riffwork from Jake Lee who took over the reins from Randy Rhoads.  He definitely has his own style.  Ozzy sounds great too.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 18

ARTIST:  Ozzy Osbourne
ORIGIN:  Birmingham, England
TITLE:  No More Tears
LABEL:  Epic
YEAR:  1991
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "No More Tears"
NOTES:  I got this for my birthday from my grandmother at the same time as the prior Black Sabbath album.  It is kind of odd that I got an Ozzy album and a Black Sabbath album at the same time but the Black Sabbath album did not feature Ozzy on vocals.  I was aware by this time that Ozzy did sing for Sabbath early on, even though I did not have anything that featured him.  This is still one of my favorite albums by Ozzy, and his last really good one.