I doubt Ozzy Osbourne really needs any introduction.  Once the singer of one of the best, and heaviest bands on earth, Black Sabbath, he then started on a solo career, releasing two phenomenally good albums with Randy Rhoads.  But then Randy died and Ozzy was never really the same again.  He wrote some excellent songs with Zakk Wylde, the majority of which can be found on No Rest For The Wicked (my personal favourite album of his), and more recently, he can be seen on MTV in his new show, The Osbournes, which follows the life of his family.

I own every album Ozzy's made, in and out of Sabbath, but his last album, Down To Earth, is appalling quality.  None of the songs were written with Zakk and it really shows because, well, they all sound the same.  So thank god only three of them appear on Live At Budokan. On the plus side, Zakk is actually allowed to play in his own style for these tracks, instead of the toned down dullness he was made to live with in the studio by the producer.  The rest of the album is filled with Bark At The Moon, the usual songs from Blizzard Of Ozz, and the obligatory Paranoid.  A nice surprise was the addition of Believer, which I hadn't heard Zakk play before (although there are better songs from Diary Of A Madman he could have picked).

I find it frustrating that Ozzy shuns half of his discography, and plays such a short set.  His band for this album is terrible, with Zakk Wylde being the only member who played with any talent.  He is the only good thing on this album, but this isn't enough to make me ever want to listen to the album again.  Live And Loud is a lot better, has a longer setlist, talented musicians, and Ozzy's voice is in good shape.  The same goes for the Randy Rhoads Tribute.  If you have those, don't bother with Live At Budokan.  If you dont have those, buy them instead.  Ozzy should have retired after the 1998 Black Sabbath reunion tour, and gone out with a bang, instead of this whimper.