Black Smiths

The contrasts between Ozzy Osbourne and Morrissey are multitudinous. A few of the most obvious: Morrissey is rock's most famous abstainer since Ian MacKaye; Ozzy once inhaled pills and groupies like they were oxygen. Morrissey reads Oscar Wilde; Ozzy has problems with a TelePrompTer. Ozzy munches bats; Morrissey thinks meat...

By Jason Heller

March 3, 2005

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The contrasts between Ozzy Osbourne and Morrissey are multitudinous. A few of the most obvious: Morrissey is rock's most famous abstainer since Ian MacKaye; Ozzy once inhaled pills and groupies like they were oxygen. Morrissey reads Oscar Wilde; Ozzy has problems with a TelePrompTer. Ozzy munches bats; Morrissey thinks meat is murder. So what possessed Denver's Black Smiths to take Black Sabbath's music and wed it to the Smiths' lyrics? Who cares, when the results are as hilariously clever as this disc (whose releases will be celebrated Friday, March 4, at the Cherry Pit)? Songs segue between faithful Sabbath covers and sludge-dredged renditions of Smiths riffs, topped off by the vocals of Rich Groskopf of the Agency, who somehow makes lines like "I would go out tonight/But I haven't got a stitch to wear" ring sinister. But as flawlessly realized as this CD is, the men of Black Smiths aren't the best parodists of Osbourne and Morrissey out there. That honor has to be reserved for Ozz and Mozz themselves.

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