The Ultimate Sin

The Ultimate Sin is Jake E. Lee’s second and final album on guitar, and a fourth record that pushes 1980s-metal glamour to the front. Made with a new lineup of Phil Soussan on bass and Randy Castillo on drums, it is an ambitious comeback on which Ozzy, fresh from treatment at a rehabilitation center, aimed to reassert himself through clear riffs and big melodies. It reached his highest chart placing to that point, steeped in the atmosphere of an era when metal was nearing its commercial peak. The hit single “Shot in the Dark,” co-written by Soussan, became a new signature song with its catchy chorus and dramatic structure. From the racing title track “The Ultimate Sin” and “Secret Loser” to “Thank God for the Bomb,” which sings of the fear of nuclear war, and the stately “Killer of Giants,” Lee’s incisive guitar and a polished 1980s production drive the whole album. Weighting refinement and catchiness over the roughness of the early records, it is remembered — for all the debate around it — as a glossy metal album delivered at the height of Ozzy’s era.