"Diary of a Madman" is a heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 song by Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...

 released in 1981 on his Diary of a Madman

Diary of a Madman (album)

Diary of a Madman is the second studio album by Ozzy Osbourne. It was recorded from the 9th of Feb to the 23 of March 1981 inclusively - the end of winter in the UK and recording ending just into spring equinox. It was released on November 7, 1981, and re-issued on August 22, 1995. An altered...

album. The majority of the song is in the uncommon time signature

Time signature

The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

 of 7/8 time throughout the verses.

The alternative rock band A Perfect Circle

A Perfect Circle

A Perfect Circle is an American rock supergroup formed in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. The original incarnation of the band also included Paz Lenchantin on bass, Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar, and Tim Alexander on drums...

 covered this song, and combined it with "Lovesong" by The Cure

The Cure

The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...

.

Progressive metal band Dream Theater

Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...

 covered this song live and released it on the Uncovered 2003-2005 official bootleg by YtseJam Records.

The Heavy Metal themed video game Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend is an action-adventure/real-time strategy game created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America and Europe...

 includes this song in the soundtrack.

Personnel

• Ozzy Osbourne
  Ozzy Osbourne
  John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
  
   - vocals
• Randy Rhoads
  Randy Rhoads
  Randall William "Randy" Rhoads was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. A devoted student of classical guitar, Rhoads often combined his classical music influences with his own heavy metal style. While on tour with Ozzy Osbourne, he would seek out...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Bob Daisley
  Bob Daisley
  Robert John "Bob" Daisley is an Australian musician, bassist and lyricist who has performed in genres of rock, blues, R&B, hard rock and metal.-Early career:...
  
   - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Lee Kerslake
  Lee Kerslake
  Lee Kerslake is an English musician, best known as the longtime drummer and backing vocalist for the rock band Uriah Heep, in addition to his work in the Ozzy Osbourne band...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Louis Clark - string
  String section
  The string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
  
   arrangement
  Arrangement
  The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...