ALBUM OF THE WEEK

The first line you hear on the rock icon’s latest album is ‘he’s on the way out’. Based on this, his 13th away from the Black Sabbath fold, the 73-year-old is not ready to flick his final devil sign just yet. A host of guests aid and abet a credible effort – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Guns n’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and the late Foo Fighters drummer

Ozzy Osbourne Patient Number 9

Epic Records Out now

★★★★★

Taylor Hawkins among them. Beck, a proto-metaller with The Yardbirds in the 1960s, goes to guitar town on the seven minutes plus opening title track. Osborne’s regular guitarist Zakk Wylde lifts lesser tracks Parasite and Evil Shuffle and the slow Mr Darkness. The unmistakable sound of Eric Clapton’s Stratocaster marks out the best track One Of Those Days where Ozzy sings ‘one of those days where I don’t believe in Jesus’. The Bible belters might be building a pyre as we speak.