Black Label Society - Shot To Hell Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 10.09.2006
More is more. A review by way of ASTROLOGY!
Black Label Society Shot To Hell
2006
Roadrunner
7.0
Zakk Wylde, architest of Black Label Society, born Zachary Jeffery Philip Wylde on Jan 14, 1967 in Bayonne, NJ, is a Capricorn. Some of the traits of this sign are steadfastness, reliability, stability, hardworking, practical, ambitious, responsible. These can all be seen as positives, yes, but also for Capricorn is a sense of the headstrong, stubborn, trudging, coldness, materialism and dullness, which may not be so positive. As a Capricorn, Wylde very consistently releases album after album, which are all of an equally consistent quality level and sound, Alice In Chains by way of Ozzy. They also tend to be basically re-writes of the same album and some albums are an albums-worth of a certain sound or characteristic. Take Blessed Hellride, for instance. On that album, Wylde took the vocal multi-tracking aspect that is the crutch of Ozzy Osbourne, and beat it to death. While he still uses the multi-tracking, on this album, for instance, we have a HEAVY preponderance of wah pedal guitar noises. For years, Wylde was known for his signature bullseye guitars and trademark guitar squealing noises.
In a way, this is too bad, as it sells Wylde short as a musician and guitarist. He is one of the most gifted and excellent musicians to ever come down the pike, yet is almost instantly dismissed because people tend to associate him with those items that he cannot seem to stop himself from repeating ad nauseam. Wylde is a serviceable vocalist (unless he is trying to cover Whiter Shade Of Pale, but as a songwriter, he rather easily gets stuck in ruts and while those ruts are very accomplished at times, they are still ruts. As much as I hate to say it, after as many albums as he has released solo, it becomes clear that once you've heard a Black Label Society album, you've heard them all. As more albums get to be released, the songs blur more and more into one another. This one stops just short of sounding like one long song with pauses.
The booklet, in keeping with the biker motif that is a hallmark of Black Label Society, features nuns smoking cigars and shooting pool as the front cover. This is continued on the back cover, with pool balls numbers up denoting song order. The foldout features easily the stupidest arrangement I've ever seen (thank you big Roadrunner budget!). I'm all in favor of originality and trying new things, but this kind of thing, with panels going everywhere, is just idiotic. Once it folds out, more of the idea. Pool, nuns, cigars, lyrics, credits.
The 411: Wylde has finally made his way to a bigger label with Roadrunner and a hot producer in
Michael Beinhorn, but has not come up with any either new or particularly accessible material. With
Shot To Hell, it is literally more of the same. Once again, he plays the piano well, drops some
shredding bombs on lead guitar and generally does everything he has done for the past eighteen or so
years on the scene. Fans will dig it, everyone else will shrug and maybe notice when it stops playing.
