The debut album for Black
Label Society is a real melting pot of just about everything you could possibly
imagine - southern blues rock, hard core metal, brilliant guitar riffs from one
of the modern masters, slow doom metal in an almost Black Sabbath setting,
average pass-mark songs, acoustically driven riffs and the grinding and
sometimes hypnotic vocals from the lead man himself. If you can't at least find
something interesting amongst all of that lot then you are in the wrong place.
Zakk Wylde breaks away from his father figure Ozzy Osbourne here to produce something that is completely different from what he was playing and writing for the previous decade. In a refreshing attitude he hasn't tried to reproduce that kind of music, instead blending his own roots to what he enjoys playing and bringing it all together in a package that is hard to define in a genre sense.
The mixture of songs here is as unusual as it is impressive. Vocally, Wydle is similar but different to Ozzy, and even though he does not try to mimic him at all you can pick up similarities at different times. His break out solos still steal the show, especially in early songs like "Bored to Tears" and "The Rose Petalled Garden". The opening riff of "Hey You (Batch of Lies)" is just awesome heavy stuff, before settling back into a battle between the more mellow then aggressive lyrical snatches. A really diverse and effective song.
"Peddlers of Death" has breakout solos, heavy riff, but is divided on a couple of occasions by some of Zakk's quiet piano driven melody in different parts of the song. Only Zakk Wylde could get away with doing something like that without destroying the song. "Mother Mary" is as belligerent a song as Zakk can dish up, in your face for most of the four minutes with more great guitar work. This is as far away as you can get from the start of the next song, whose mellow section of "Beneath the Tree" is almost like Soundgarden or very possibly like Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan", but is combined brilliantly with Zakk's moaning vocals once the song kicks into gear. It's a band-defining song, showing the various levels that they can put together in their song structure, and that they have their own style without trying to sound like any other band.
"Low Dow" is back in your face, before the acoustic riff jam of "T.A.Z." again surprises you with the diversity on this album. "Lost My Better Half" is one of the heavier songs on the album, led by a great riff and vocal. There are some Tony Iommi solo moments through some of these songs - have a listen and try and pick which songs he may be paying tribute to, because it's a little too close on some occasions for it not to be deliberate. The album finishes up with two of my favourite songs, "World of Trouble" and "The Beginning... At Last", which are separated by the acoustically balladesque "Spoke in the Wheel" which again showcases the diversity that Zakk is capable of.
There is a tendency for the songs here to get a bit "samey", in that the guitar riffs through the songs seems to be a little bit repetitive in places. A lot of that is to do with Zakk's signature guitaring being prevalent all the way through, as well as his squeals. It could also be argued that he moves between the heavier riff and the quieter acoustic or piano a little too regularly to be considered a change.
As an outlet for his own musical writing away from his main gig with Ozzy Osbourne, this was an excellent first album for his 'other' band, which in recent years has now become his main focus.
Zakk Wylde breaks away from his father figure Ozzy Osbourne here to produce something that is completely different from what he was playing and writing for the previous decade. In a refreshing attitude he hasn't tried to reproduce that kind of music, instead blending his own roots to what he enjoys playing and bringing it all together in a package that is hard to define in a genre sense.
The mixture of songs here is as unusual as it is impressive. Vocally, Wydle is similar but different to Ozzy, and even though he does not try to mimic him at all you can pick up similarities at different times. His break out solos still steal the show, especially in early songs like "Bored to Tears" and "The Rose Petalled Garden". The opening riff of "Hey You (Batch of Lies)" is just awesome heavy stuff, before settling back into a battle between the more mellow then aggressive lyrical snatches. A really diverse and effective song.
"Peddlers of Death" has breakout solos, heavy riff, but is divided on a couple of occasions by some of Zakk's quiet piano driven melody in different parts of the song. Only Zakk Wylde could get away with doing something like that without destroying the song. "Mother Mary" is as belligerent a song as Zakk can dish up, in your face for most of the four minutes with more great guitar work. This is as far away as you can get from the start of the next song, whose mellow section of "Beneath the Tree" is almost like Soundgarden or very possibly like Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan", but is combined brilliantly with Zakk's moaning vocals once the song kicks into gear. It's a band-defining song, showing the various levels that they can put together in their song structure, and that they have their own style without trying to sound like any other band.
"Low Dow" is back in your face, before the acoustic riff jam of "T.A.Z." again surprises you with the diversity on this album. "Lost My Better Half" is one of the heavier songs on the album, led by a great riff and vocal. There are some Tony Iommi solo moments through some of these songs - have a listen and try and pick which songs he may be paying tribute to, because it's a little too close on some occasions for it not to be deliberate. The album finishes up with two of my favourite songs, "World of Trouble" and "The Beginning... At Last", which are separated by the acoustically balladesque "Spoke in the Wheel" which again showcases the diversity that Zakk is capable of.
There is a tendency for the songs here to get a bit "samey", in that the guitar riffs through the songs seems to be a little bit repetitive in places. A lot of that is to do with Zakk's signature guitaring being prevalent all the way through, as well as his squeals. It could also be argued that he moves between the heavier riff and the quieter acoustic or piano a little too regularly to be considered a change.
As an outlet for his own musical writing away from his main gig with Ozzy Osbourne, this was an excellent first album for his 'other' band, which in recent years has now become his main focus.
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