Black Label Society – Shot To Hell

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Roadrunner Records
Produced by Zakk Wylde & Michael Beinhorn

The seventh Black Label Society album comes at a time when Zakk Wylde’s band are probably hitting their peak of their popularity so far, which probably means it will be their biggest selling album regardless of how good it is.

And the first thing on it is an old song, or at least feels like one. Accusations of recycled riffs and repetitive solos have been rife over the course of the last two or three albums, but recycled lyrics now seem to be the order of the day as well. “Step inside” and “No one gets out alive” are lyrics from lead single Concrete Jungle, lifted straight from House of Doom from Hangover Music Volume VI, and the talk-box intro is just like the one on Fire It Up from Mafia (which at the time was a new idea because Zakk hadn’t done anything like that before). Then there’s another one on Blacked Out World. The latter however survives through being a good song, with a structure quite different to previous BLS material. Which is more than can be said for the mundane Concrete Jungle.

Assumed second single Black Mass Reverends, with it’s rolling bass intro is also an excellent track, it’s just too short and easily overlooked, which is a problem the album as a whole is threatened with. Every time a Black Label Society single is released to radio it is proudly declared to be the most added song on rock radio in the USA. It seems to be the desire for this to continue happening is affecting Zakk’s music, because this is an album full of short rock songs (note rock, not metal) aimed at getting on the radio; the antithesis of Zakk’s usual attitude to music. The wealth of Def Leppard-esque ballads on here (four in all, with the first at track four as normal) is another sign of this.

Of the other rock songs, none really stand out. Hell Is High, Give Yourself To Me, Faith Is Blind (with a riff straight from Berzerkers), Devil’s Dime and New Religion don’t do anything to set the disc alight the way every song on the immortal Stronger Than Death and Sonic Brew discs did. In fact, there really is just the one great song on it; Blacked Out World. Even the guitar playing, for which Zakk is revered and worshipped, is not what it was. Most of it sounds like someone who’s copied the style but lacks the creativity.

There’ll be some that love it, because it’s more of the same. Exactly the same. This will mostly be the metal-kids who will swarm all over Blabbermouth and other such adolescent internet haunts to argue about whether Zakk “rocks” or “sucks”. These aren’t generally the kind of listeners capable of objectively looking at anything and won’t see this for the below-par album it is. Zakk is better than this, and it will come as a serious disappointment to true fans still waiting for him to recapture the genius of Pride & Glory, Book of Shadows and the first two BLS albums.

“ the antithesis of Zakk’s usual attitude ”

Tracklist: Concrete Jungle / Black Mass Reverends / Blacked Out World / Last Goodbye / Give Yourself To Me / Nothing’s The Same / Hell Is High / New Religion / Sick of It All / Faith Is Blind / Blood Is Thicker Than Water / Devil’s Dime / Lead Me To Your Door

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Heavy Metal, Black Label Society