Black Label Society

There is always a lot of hype surrounding Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society, but after hearing 1919 Eternal, one can only wonder why? The man is a metal guitar legend, no doubt about that, but there is not a lot of axe work on here that really grabs the listener. The tunes are modern heavy metal, à la Pantera, unfortunately the emphasis on groove and kill merely ends up repetitive and coma-inducing. The album isn't without its moments of down-tuned, pissed off metal glory (the chorus of "Bleed For Me" is excellent), but they are few and far between, sandwiched between far too much filler and swamped in a bad production sound (love those "drums"). It's hard to not like the guy, what with his "target" guitar and raging Ozzy-era solos burned into every metalhead's memory, but this effort disappoints.