The Ultimate Sin Reviews

In the world of music there are several things I don't understand. At the top of the list lies Ozzy Osbourne and that business manager wife of his. Ozzy has shown more disrespect towards his back catalog of music than any other musician I can think of in order to save a few measly dollars. While this won't stop me from enjoying the tracks and albums I like, the stories behind re-recording parts of classic albums like Blizzard of Ozz are just ugly. Just as ugly is almost acting as if The Ultimate Sin and "Shot in the Dark" never existed in the first place.

Now don't get me wrong, The Ultimate Sin is far from a five star album. Like a lot of people, my main concern was obtaining a copy of Shot in the Dark on a CD since you can't find it on any other album. With that mission accomplished, I thought the story was over. Far from it. Needless to say I was surprised how the rest of the album managed to sneak up on me, from the Cold War inspired "Thank God for the Bomb" to welcoming beat of "Secret Loser" there is much more to be discovered here. In fact, "Secret Loser" pretty much sums up the situation this album is in considering it was passed up for re-release and re-mastering in 2002.

One can only wonder why such a worthy pit stop would be deleted from Osbourne's catalog. Most people - myself included at one point - erroneously thought The Ultimate Sin was shelved because of a royalties dispute between Osborune and Phil Soussan. This doesn't seem to be the case since the last legal dispute between the two was settled back in the 1990's. So what's the deal? Hopefully, with Ozzy's back catalog being re-released again this album with get another look by the big wigs that ultimately make the decisions. Maybe they'll make the right choice this time and restore this discarded piece of history. Still, I'm not counting on it.

Anyway, as was said before, I can't give The Ultimate Sin a ten out of ten. The album is enjoyable and gives according to how much the listener is willing to put into it but it's still not a top of the line release. Such truths aside, the album definitely deserves much more credit than it seems to receive from its creator and can easily find a place in any music lover’s collection.