Album Review: Black Label Society – ‘Doom Crew Inc.’

Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society have become the AC/DC of American bluesy heavy rock since their formation in the late '90s. Running alongside Wylde’s bountiful and long-running career as Ozzy’s lead guitarist, BLS have cranked out highly reliable ballsy-arse rock'n'roll albums every few years for more than two decades, and garnered a legion of dedicated followers along the way.

You know exactly what you’re going to get with a new BLS album before you even click ‘play’, which makes their records somewhat of a predictable affair, but this is the way their fans love it. They wouldn’t have it any other way, and Wylde and his merry band of rock'n'roll outlaws deliver the goods here in spades. Doom Crew Inc. is 11 tracks and an hour’s worth of grindy blues-based riffs, fat, four on the floor grooves and Zakk’s smoky, beer and weed-soaked vocals, interspersed with a few dark piano and acoustic-based ballads for dynamic purposes. As ever, the album’s quieter moments are generally very effective and give the album the sweet sheen of light and shade.

This time around, Wylde pays respectful homage to the band’s long-suffering road crew and long-time, loyal fans in the album’s title, lyrics and imagery.

Arguably the highlight of this, and indeed any Black Label record is the lead work of Wylde himself, although he shares much of the fretting duty with former Lizzy Borden six-stringer Dario Lorina (who became a permanent member in 2014) here. More than just about any other rock guitarist working today, Wylde’s lead lines could blister skin and slice through steel.

A couple of key tracks among the 11 crackers on display here; You Made Me Want To Live, with its neck-snapping juxtaposition of the dark eeriness of the guitar and vocal-only verse and the fist-pumping, singalong chorus (the track also features probably the best lead break on the album), and the raunchy, bluesy stomp of the mid-set Forsake. The six-and-a-half-minute Farewell Ballad closes proceedings in fine and melancholy style too.

Doom Crew Inc. is yet another deeply satisfying Black Label Society release. It is unlikely to win them many new devotees, but it will keep their existing horde of fans worldwide deliriously happy, and have them banging their heads and thrusting their fists skyward with abandon when the band takes this record on the road.