Blessed Hellride

Japanese edition of the metal guitarist's 2003 album with Black Label Society has earliest release (domestic 4-22-03) & includes one bonus track, 'F.U.N.'. 12 tracks in all. Universal.

The Blessed Hellride finds former Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist and Black Label Society frontman Zakk Wylde playing all instruments bar the drums, yet retaining an intensity that Osbourne has sadly lacked for some years. Combining the bludgeoning heaviness of Black Sabbath, the Southern flavor of the Allman Brothers, and the flashy pyrotechnics of Eddie Van Halen, Wylde delivers crushing riffs and head-spinning solos throughout such highlights as the grand "Blackened Waters," the stomping "Suffering Overdue," and "Stillborn," a pained lament for dead love that features Osbourne. Wylde owes such a debut to Black Sabbath that his voice is nearly indistinguishable from Ozzy's, and he lacks subtlety, as evinced by the clattering percussion that invades the otherwise melancholic closer "Dead Meadow". Even so, this is a cut above the heavy-rock norm. --Dominic Wills