OOOOOOkay - nevermind. Amazon started working, so here we go. Happy New Music Tuesday to all you B Siders!! And thanks again for being patient with me today. I didn't get any nasty comments, emails or death threats - so thank you! I'd never heard of these gents until today (or I guess the other day when I saw they were putting out something new...) Regardless, they were new to me. Turns out they've been making music for over a decade! Crazy right? They're listed as heavy metal and hard rock - but they've got a couple nice ballads on this album. Some of the hard tracks, yeah - they hit hard though. I'm not really sure I'm in love with the lead singers voice. Seems silly, but it detracts from the music for me. He's like a less talented Ozzy. I think if you're a big metal follower - this is probably a band you're familiar with and you'll enjoy this album. For me however, it's just not something I think I'd ever put on. Mainly - it's just kind of odd. I mean, you go from hard hitting metal to ballad to a fiddle(?) played track on number 11. And then bam, back to metal. I don't know...I might give it a couple more goes, but I think the best I'll do is grabbing a single or two. I certainly won't be doing the whole album anytime soon. Let me know what you think...maybe I'm off base. Happy Tuesday!
TRACK LISTING:
1. Crazy Horse
2. Overlord
3. Parade of the Dead
4. Darkest Days
5. Black Sunday
6. Southern Dissolution
7. Time Waits For No One
8. Godspeed Hellbound
9. War of Heaven
10. Shallow Grave
11. Chupacabra
12. Riders of the Damned
13. January
Listen To Samples
Top 3 Tracks:
1. Darkest Days
2. Black Sunday
3. Chupacabra (why not?)
FINAL RATING:
2 out of 5 stars
now, i know that you're not the biggest metal fan. but i also know that you are otherwise well versed in music. so it's hard for me to accept the fact that you had never heard of black label society before today since they're pretty well known. in one of the guitar hero games, you can even unlock zakk wylde's signature 'bullseye' guitar. so i had an eyebrow raised when i read that.
ReplyDeleteit's interesting that you make the ozzy comparison. zakk wylde, the singer you're not a fan of, was (until very recently) ozzy's guitarist. black play a set and then zakk wylde would play with ozzy's set right after for several ozzfests. that (2 sets in one night) can be pretty grueling for a musician. ozzy actually did guest vocals on 'stillborn' for BLS which i would guess is their biggest radio hit. plus, zakk wylde is a kick ass guitar player. i concede that his voice is not my favorite - i think sully from godsmack or lajon from sevendust or even corey taylor from slipknot have better metal voices - but it doesn't bother me.
i don't actually own any BLS albums (though i have acquired several songs of theirs) and i probably won't buy this one unless i really like it, so i can't comment on the flow of the album or the mix of songs. i don't see what's bad about a fiddle thrown in on a song or two - korn has bagpipes, remember (which never cease to be awesome live) - and i am guessing that if you had a 'metal' or 'rock' playlist and threw these songs in on shuffle you might be happier.
but they are a kick ass live show, even if you go just for zakk wylde's guitar. plus (as an added bonus) i also find him quite attractive for a long haired, long bearded metal dude.
I should say that I've heard the name in passing, just can't say I've actually heard any of their music. It's possible if they had some monster hits that I'd heard them on the radio or something, but I couldn't decipher any in my research.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't that I don't respect Zakk as you call him, or his music - I just don't think his vocals are solid. I'm sure he's a hell of a guitarist and a very hard working man. And it's not even that I didn't enjoy a few tracks on this record either. As a whole, I just feel the album is weaker than other metal albums that have come out recently.
And I wasn't really bagging on the fiddle, it's more the placement of it in the record. Korn makes the bagpipe work - because they do crazy still like that on a regular basis. Maybe BLS does too, I'm just not familiar enough with their stuff. So as a first time listener, I wasn't expecting that.
I'll take your word for it. If I ever go to a metal show and they open, I'll keep all that in mind.