_Various Artists - Bat Head Soup / Tribute to Ozz_y - Deadline, 2000  
The latest all-metal-star tribute from those crazy folks at           
Deadline Records is more immediately listenable than this             
year's earlier Jap-only, other-label Tribute to Randy Rhoads. I       
mean, what Eighties Metal metalhead doesn't want to hear Vince        
Neil attempt "Paranoid?" Or Dee Snider ride "Crazy Train?" Or         
the remarkably full-voiced Tim "Ripper" Owens lament "Mr.             
Crowley?" Too bad too many of these covers, like, suck after a        
few spins. The previous three, for example, are respectively          
tanked by forgettable vocals, a weak drum section, and the            
horrendous overplaying of one Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Thanks             
Swede. Other tracks are bland but interesting. Like the hearing       
one-time Ozzy axeman Brad Gillis going "Over the Mountain. "          
Same with Lemmy's pop-crooning on "Desire, " a song he                
originally co-wrote with the Ozz-man. (He also co-wrote               
"Hellraiser, " better-covered here byJoe Lynn Turner. Of              
course, Motorhead's version is better than either Ozzy's or           
Turner's!) Those precious few good ones--let's make it a good         
one!-- are also the least-expected: Lisa Loeb softly saying           
"Goodbye to Romance, " Jack Blades admitting "I Don't Know,           
"and a slightly rearranged brew of "Suicide Solution. " And           
that last guy sure sounds like Ozzy! 8/00.