Pop Music Review : A Mellower Ozzy Displays Spirited Wizardry at Forum

Part of the prelude to Ozzy Osbourne’s show at the Forum on Thursday was a video montage that combined sensational headlines he’s made in the course of his 25-year career with manic concert footage. In recent years the controversies surrounding the former Black Sabbath leader have died down as he’s mellowed out and sobered up, but far from lapsing into boredom, the more down-to-earth approach has brought out his genuine talents as a performer.

Apparently nursing a cold, Osbourne seemed less spry than he was at his Palladium appearance last October but he was no less spirited, scurrying back and forth across the stage, hurling buckets of water at the crowd and exhorting audience members to clap their hands, sway their arms and generally “go crazy.” It was hard to resist the combination of childlike enthusiasm and crusty ranting, and the crowd happily obliged him, bellowing the chorus of “Bark at the Moon” on cue, chanting the verses of a rousing rendition of “War Pigs,” then transforming the Forum into a twinkling sea of cigarette lighters during the beautiful, bittersweet ballad “Goodbye to Romance.”

Bassist Mike Inez (on loan from Alice in Chains) and drummer Randy Castillo gave sludgier Black Sabbath classics such as “Iron Man” and “Paranoid” a somewhat crisper metallic edge and hammered a downright funky undercurrent into “War Pigs.” Though not quite as flashy a focal point as his predecessor, Zakk Wylde, guitarist Joe Holmes proved to be an equally worthy ax man, delivering virtuosic solos and primordial riffs with low-key panache.

Openers Korn and the Deftones have developed their sounds in a tumultuous post-metal nether world influenced by rap, industrial and hard-core punk. Relentless touring has tempered Korn’s chunky, sinister music into a smoothly orchestrated sonic maelstrom, and even its harshest moments flowed with a seductive suppleness.