For those of you not familiar with Zakk Wylde, he is Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist (and if you're not familiar with Ozzy, well- I don't know what to say.) Zakk Wylde has a heavy metal band on the side called Black Label Society, and his material is usually tough-as-nails heavy metal. His type of heavy metal is between Ozzy and heavy Black Sabbath with extra speed. Blessed Hellride, however, doesn't get past first gear.

Overall: This album fails on two levels. It’s too heavy for the bluesy crap on this record, and it’s too bluesy for when the album tries to be heavy. For straight-up heavy metal, get Zakk's better Black Label Society album, 1919 Eternal. For Zakk’s softer side, get Book of Shadows. Just avoid this album—the worst of both worlds.

1. Stoned and Drunk- Right off the bat, this annoyed me. Heavy metal albums are supposed to start out with a strong punch. This one fades in—BAD way to start any heavy metal album. It isn’t until about 14 seconds that I hear anything. Right away, it’s lost momentum. Then it kicks off with a aggressive riff the song should’ve started out at. Stoned and Drunk is still a poor title for a song.

2. Doomsday Jesus- This ones starts out decent. The verse riffs are aggressive, and the chorus riff—really dumbed down, slow, lame riff, and Zakk does “pinch harmonic” the hell out of it. The solo is very good, to his credit. But then we got right back to the boring slow riff, accompanied by Zakk screaming one long “note.”

3. Stillborn- This one isn’t particularly heavy, and seems like one made up for radio play. After all, it has guest Ozzy Ozbourne singing. Not bad though.

4. Suffering Overdue- Zakk just completely ruined the song from the beginning by putting pinch harmonics at the end of EVERY MEASURE in the into riff. Pinch harmonics are supposed to be used every once in a while to compliment a riff- not all the damn time. It’s like a salt shaker- do you dump the whole salt shaker onto a juicy steak or do you use a little bit? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I didn’t even listen to the rest- it was already ruined for me.

5. The Blessed Hellride- Zakk Wylde, let me explain something: titles to songs are supposed to give the listener some expectation as to what the song is going to be like. Therefore, when you title a song “The Blessed Hellride,” you do NOT MAKE IT A BORING BLUES BALLAD. The drums are too loud to make it a proper ballad anyways, even without the misleading title. This should’ve been a screaming guitar monster of a song. Dumbass. By the time the full-fledge blues solo comes on, I’m tempted to throw this CD in the trash.

6. Funeral Bell- Good riff. Still, drums are too loud. Actually, this one isn’t too bad, really. Nothing special, either.

7. Final Solution- see track number 4.

8. Destruction Overdrive- All right! Yes! THIS should’ve been the first track, as well as the title track. Finally, Zakk Wylde doing straight heavy-metal without adding in blues bullshit or overdoing the pinch harmonics. The ONE standout song on this album.

9. Blackened Waters- Right back to square one again. Zakk, you did the ballad stuff already, done very well, on “Book of Shadows.” This just doesn’t belong on a heavy metal record. Leave it off. Ballads are good if you know how to make the song transition into a heavy riff interestingly. Metallica were masters at that.

10. We Live No More- What in the world kind of drum beat is that in a heavy metal CD? Sigh…I can’t even tell what he was going for here.

11. Dead Meadow- Piano. Yes, piano. Piano can be used very well in heavy metal if it’s not a SOUL/BLUES BULLSHIT INTERLUDE INTO MORE BLUES BULLSHIT ON A HEAVY METAL RECORD. Christ, I think I’m going to have a heart attack.

Please, if you're looking for balls-to-the-wall heavy metal by Black Label Society, pick up 1919 Eternal.


Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Sleeping