During the last ten years Ozzy worked hard and successfully shitted on the shade his name was throwing on rock culture. Like his wife’s blunders, his meetings with Bush, reality shows and mindless cover versions were not enough, but above all, the Godfather acted like a senile pensioner. Now, aged, he decided to see if the shit could be washed with a handful of black rain. As a devoted ozzygophrenic and ozzsciple I say: Yes, it can. However, as a fan of rock music in general, “Black Rain” doesn’t sound that convincing to me. In other words, if you want classic and technical rock, do not look for it in this CD, but if you don’t mind hearing the icon of heavy music for the last 37 years with a new repertory, give it a try. It won’t hurt. The ten songs on "Black Rain" represent an up-to-date reading of the good ol' metal/rock'n'roll - without pomposity, much solos and musical swagger, just straight rock. There aren’t these 80's-typical explosive drum transitions and diverse bass lines. Mike Bordin (ex-Faith No More) and Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (ex-Rob Zombie) just do the rhythm. These follow the modern tendencies in the style, and the accent falls on the riffs and the heavy sounding guitar. The signature of Zakk Wylde is obvious in the writing of most of the songs, because the guitar passages in most of them strongly reminds of the band he leads - Black Label Society (especially in “I Don’t Wanna Stop”). With his lyrics Ozzy explains that he is far from thinking of retirement and directly declares, “I’m Not Going Away”. And so, one song after another, nice metal riffs (all that Zakk!), slightly boring compositions and Osbourne’s confessions follow. The pressing global topic of war has not passed the eternal “madman”, too, and in the title track he shows that “War Pigs” is still adequate today. “Lay Your World on Me” is the weaker of the two ballads on the CD, while “Here for You” is a great reminder of the wonderful “So Tired” and “Road to Nowhere”. Zakk plays one of his most beautiful solos in it and - along with “Countdown’s Begun” (maybe the track that deserves most to be called “Just say Ozzy”) and the first two songs on the album - is one of the reasons for me to like it that much to play the CD more often. At the threshold of his sixties, Ozzy Osbourne gives us a reason to think twice before we strike his name off the rock scene. Yes, for years the occasions to mention him did not show him in the best light, but we can forgive him. At least he admits it himself" “After all, I’m still crazy!”