Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain

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NME.COM feature on Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain album including album review, artwork, tracks, listen now, tour dates, discography and more.

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Release date: 23 May 2007

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Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain: Wikipedia Album Entry

Black Rain is the title of Ozzy Osbourne's ninth studio album, released May 22, 2007 on Epic Records. Black Rain is the follow up to Osbourne's 2001 release Down to Earth. Short previews of most of the songs are available on ozzy.com, and the first single, "I Don't Wanna Stop", was released on Ozzy.com on April 13th.

Osbourne has stated that this is the first album he has recorded sober. It featured a new musical style for him and was his first album to feature elements of industrial metal and thrash metal. Though his lyrical style remained similar to before, the album featured many elements not seen in previous albums, such as distorted and modified vocals (in an attempt to make Ozzy's voice sound younger), heavier guitars, and the higher usage of synthesizers. The latter may be because of the fact that this is the first album to not feature a keyboardist in Osbourne's backup band, and guitarist Zakk Wylde filled the spot for the album, and sometimes chose to add a keyboard solo to a song rather than a guitar solo.

The album was released in several different versions. The original US version was released in a thin, brown digipak with the crowned skull Ozzy logo and for the rest of the world, it was released in a standard jewel case featuring cover art of Ozzy with "Black Rain" falling (pictured right). This cover included a booklet complete with lyrics and album credits. The US version did not include a booklet, lyrics, or album credits. The Japanese release was the same as the other releases outside of the US, except for the fact that it included two bonus tracks, "I Can't Save You," and "Nightmare." The iTunes release of the album included the aforementioned "Nightmare," plus an exclusive bonus track, (only for those who preordered through iTunes) "Love to Hate." It also included a printable pdf file of the booklet, complete with lyrics and album credits. This same booklet was later made available as a free pdf download from Ozzy's website on June 1. The song "I Don't Wanna Stop" was also featured as the theme song for WWE Judgment Day 2007.

In the US, limited edition copies of the album were sold, with special codes inside of the packets. The codes were for a pair of OzzFest 2007 tickets. OzzFest 2007 was nicknamed "Freefest" because all tickets were free.

The album was reissued in the US on August 14th in a new jewel-case package containing the full booklet with lyrics and new colour cover art and photos, also containing CD extra bonus content featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the "Black Rain" photo shoot.

A "tour edition" version of the album was released on November 20, 2007. This release includes an extra CD with 3 recently recorded live tracks and 3 studio tracks originally available on international releases and/or digital versions.


Album sales
Black Rain debuted at #3 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 152,000 copies in its first week.making it Osbourne's highest debut to date. As of September 29, 2007, the album has sold 406,053 copies in the US, and has been declared Gold.


Track listing
All songs written by Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, and Kevin Churko except where noted.

"Not Going Away" - 4:32
"I Don't Wanna Stop" - 3:59
"Black Rain" - 4:42
"Lay Your World on Me" - 4:16
"The Almighty Dollar" (Osbourne, Churko) - 6:57
"11 Silver" - 3:42
"Civilize the Universe" - 4:43
"Here for You" - 4:37
"Countdown's Begun" - 4:53
"Trap Door" (Osbourne, Churko) - 4:03

Tour Edition bonus tracks
"I Don't Wanna Stop" (live) - 3:44
"Not Going Away" (Live) - 4:36
"Here for You" (Live) - 4:51
"Nightmare" (originally a Japanese and iTunes Bonus Track) - 4:40
"I Can't Save You" (originally a Japanese Bonus Track) - 3:32
"Love to Hate" (originally an iTunes pre-order only Bonus track) - 3:57

Television performances
"I Don't Wanna Stop" was performed live by Osbourne on WWE Friday Night SmackDown on May 18, 2007.
Osbourne performed on the Jimmy Kimmel Show on May 21st and May 22nd.
Osbourne appeared on the second annual VH1 Rock Honors, and performed three songs, "Crazy Train", "Bark at the Moon" and "I Don't Wanna Stop". It was aired on May 24, 2007 on VH1 (TV airing cut the Bark at the Moon performance, but it airs as a music video on shows like Rock Fest and Metal Mania.)
Osbourne appeared on BBC1's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on May 25, 2007 and performed "I Don't Wanna Stop".
Ozzy performed "Not Going Away" on Spike's Scream Award Ceremony.

Personnel
Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
Zakk Wylde - Guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Rob "Blasko" Nicholson - Bass
Mike Bordin - Drums
Kevin Churko - Producer, Engineer, Mixer
Zack Fagan - Additional Engineering
Joshua Marc Levy - Art Direction and New Logo Design


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