Black Label Society
Hurricane Imelda came to Houston, TX and brought floods. Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society came to Houston, TX and brought havoc. I mean really, really loud havoc. I’m 99.9% sure that the whole crowd knew this was the case and this was why we all congregated at the House of Blues.
The show opened with a bit of newness coming from over seas metallers, Alien Weaponry. Solid up and coming band with a really interesting naming convention with their songs. You’ll just have to go look on your streaming platform to understand what I mean. After a solid 30 minute set, Black Dahlia Murder came out and gave us a dose of extreme. It was a good balance.
A little new, a little extreme, and I think this was by design.
Not sure if it was Zakk’s doing or someone else, but well done.
The curtains come down. The road crew runs around making sure that the Wylde Audio amps and cabs get turned up. Guitar techs run through different Black Sabbath riffs to screw with the crowd. Then it starts, a crazy cool mashup of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath plays for 3 minutes and the curtains drop. "Genocide Junkies" comes pulsing through the amps and the crowd eats it up. Zakk and his guitar counterpart, Dario Lorina, traded quick solo licks back and forth and moved on to the next song. With no break between the distortion they moved right into "Funeral Bell", "The Beginning… At Last", and probably the heaviest and lightest song all in one, "The Rose Petalled Garden". The continued on through the vast catalogue that makes up BLS and sprinkled a few of the lighter moments in there with songs like “Spoke in the Wheel” as well. Long time bassist, John DeServio, and their current drummer for the last 5 years, Jeff Fabb held down the tightness needed for a well oiled soloing machine.
The first time I saw Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society was in 2003. He has only gotten better with the crowd and continued to awe us guitar nerds with his ever-growing song catalogue. It’s loud, aggressive while also soft at moments, and I don’t believe it’s possible to conjure up a single dull moment. It’s Black Label Society!
