If there's one thing that Zakk Wylde will never get wrong, it's riffs. Either he was born with the genius-at-riffage gene or he has enough metal knowledge in his caché to fake it. I've seen him play, I assume the former. But it seems on this latest album, he's taking the Bad Company road. And not that anything here sounds like BadCo., it's just that I think of them as some of the mellowest, simplistic rock in the genre. It's not bad, just... typical. And if this album was a review of just riffage, BLS would be pulling a A-.But the songs though, are not following through. All of them follow a perfect rock pattern of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-solo-chorus-chorus. All the lyrics paint a a broad portrait of oppression, strength, power, darkness, struggle. All without really making a point about anything. He's definitely channelling Ozzy in both songwriting and throat work.
There are three ballads on the album that are a little more lyrically realized than the rockers. But again, they suffer from songwriting redundancy. Zakk's emotional output is clear, but I've heard him be more thoughtful than this before. All of this plus an excellent 50-second acoustic solo called "Chupacabra" leave us with an album that's "good"- but nothing you'll feel enticed to spin repeatedly. (3 of 5 stars)
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