“What is this, that lays before me” – The new album of the one and only Ozzy Osbourne or just Ozzy for intimae. First take a look at the line-up: Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society) on guitars, Mike Bordin (former Faith No More) on drums and Robert Trujillo (also former Faith No More) on bass. The line up is still strong, but Zakk Wylde did not participate in the writing of any of the eleven tracks (at least he isn’t mentioned on the cd as a song writer, which gives rise to some questions). This is most striking in the guitar solo’s that are less numerous than on Ozzy’s previous record `Ozzmosis`. So is this a continuance of the high standard of quality delivered on `Ozzmosis` or did Ozzy went in another direction. The first impression is a very solid record that is well produced (of course) and still has the distinguished touch of the master himself, but there is something that is completely different. Where `Ozzmosis` (and other Ozzy-records as well) marvelled in variety between ballads and up-tempo songs; `Down To Earth` shows a more solid rock character throughout the entire album. With only one very distinguished Ozzy-ballad, namely `Dreamer` (track 3), this record has one solid line that is a strong point, but also is it’s weakness. A lot of the best songs Ozzy wrote (within his solo career) are ballads, and that’s something this record lacks. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all great songs, but there are just no melody lines or riffs that stick in you mind for days and leave you longing for the song during work, until you get home and are finally able to put the record in the cd-player. To get it all into perspective: Track 1: dedicated to the fans solid rock, Track 2: catchy chorus, heavy, Track 3: ballad, Track 4 and 5: again rock, Track 6: 1:06 minutes titled `You Know` (part one), what’s the use? Track 7: solid Ozzy.

With track 8 we’ve reached a serious single candidate, for this is a track that could well have been an extra song of `Ozzmosis`. This is the quality and sound that should have filled the entire cd. Beautiful balled-like song with catchy chorus that sticks in your mind: comparable with `See You On The Other Side` of the `Ozzmosis` album. To finish the sum up: Track 9: somewhat monotonous rock, Track 10: nice melodic heavy rock, again with topping of `Ozzmosis`. Last track same as before, it just doesn’t stand out. This is the problem with the record; it is definitely an Ozzy record, but it just doesn’t stand out of his own repertoire. And no matter how often you listen to it, it gets better after every time of course, but it never reaches the satisfaction one got from previous Ozzy records, except for `Running Out Of Time` (number 8). So in the end a little bit of disappointment remains. But maybe this will only be true for the Rockballad-Ozzy-lovers, if you`re into older days rocking Ozzy than you could well adore this record and praise it to heaven. Rating this is difficult for it is a killer album, but for the standard of Ozzy it is somewhat disappointing therefore 7.0 out of 10.0 seems appropriate (with `Ozzmosis` having 9.0 out of 10.0). And why is this record so short: only 48,39 minutes, why, why, God why….. Last point: take some time to read the credits for they are very humorous, especially when he says thanks to some male friends; Ozzy`s not gay!