Order Of The Black

It’s no surprise that Zakk Wylde, one of Ozzy Osbourne’s finest guitarists, plays some of the most uncompromising hard rock in the business. He’s old-school and doesn’t bend to fashion. His vocals generate the glitzy angst of Axl Rose and many other hard-rock singers and his guitar solos sound like a man who has listened to everything from Black Sabbath to Iron Maiden. *Order of the Black* could have just as easily been released in the ‘80s, considering its devotion to the no-nonsense hard-rock attack. “War of Heaven” features machine-gun rhythms with new drummer Will Hunt settling in without a hitch. “Shallow Grave” slows things down for a little piano to sneak through. “Riders of the Damned” features an intensity rarely heard without tipping the rhythms into grindcore. “Overlord” builds off a Black Sabbath riff. “Time Waits for No One” is not the Rolling Stones tune, but a slow dance that further connects Wylde to Guns N’ Roses-era hard rock. The deluxe edition adds a 35-minute track-by-track exploration with Wylde and “The Last Goodbye” sits down with him at the piano.

Order of the Black, the band’s eighth album, isn’t a radical departure from the band’s previous work –it’s simply a refinement. There are brutal riffs (“Crazy Horse”), Southern doom (“Southern Dissolution”), gentle contemplation (the piano ballads “Darkest Days” and “Time Waits for No One”) and epic thrash (“Godspeed Hellbound”). The album’s first single, “Parade of the Dead,” meanwhile, features some vintage shredding from Wylde (or, as one very satisfied Berzerker posted online, “It’s a bit Randy Rhoads-ian. I love it!”)...as well as one wicked, bad-ass groove. While tracks like “Darkest Days” and “Shallow Grave” may portend a darker, more personal record, Wylde doesn’t necessarily see the album going one particular direction, be it heavier, moodier or lighter. “It’s just whatever the songs are,” says Wylde. “I hate bands who are like ‘This is our heaviest yet’...so it’s just picking and screaming now? Or, ‘this is the fastest guitar playing I’ve ever done.’ Then you’re listening to notes. My favorite artists –Zeppelin, Sabbath, Elton John –the whole thing is songs. Back in Black wasn’t the heaviest or most vulgar AC/DC album –it has the best songs.”

Black Label Society have a new drummer for 2010’s Order of the Black, but the overall big picture hasn’t changed much for Zakk Wylde’s Southern-fried metalheads: they’re still an unholy cocktail of Skynyrd, Sabbath, and Metallica, all the sounds that fuel a white trash night out.

No matter what you think of Black Label Society's music, you have to admire just how brilliantly the band has been able to build a fanbase.

Black Label Society - Order Of The Black review: The boys are back for good