Black Label Society
Kings Of Damnation
Spitfire
As a fan of BLS, I must also make a dangerous confession. I only own a couple of their albums. While those two are 1919 Eternal and Stronger Than Death, which make up a decent portion of the disc, there is plenty that I've only heard or heard of. Therefore, this is like a new album for me and I can't fill it up with suggestions of what should be here and what shouldn't.
As with any greatest hits albums, I'll leave that up to you, the reader, to have fun with.
As a bonus on this selection, there's also two unreleased tracks as well.
Let's dive in....
Appropriately enough, we start with a couple of Pride And Glory songs and as a fan of many songs with a "Southern Twist", I like these. "Losing Your Mind" would be my favorite of the two.
We then get into the mellow offerings from "Book Of Shadows" which I also enjoyed, especially "Between Heaven And Hell".
From there it goes into Sonic Brew, 1919 Eternal, Stronger Than Death, The Blessed Hellride, Hangover Music Volume VI, and finally the two unreleased tracks, "Doomsday Inc." and "SDMF".
Personally, I was hoping for alot more from the two new ones. I really wanted to be blown away, but wasn't. Especially with "SDMF" simply because that's the calling card for the diehard fans. Perhaps it's the BLS style, but I was hoping for more...
Here's the track listing for the album:
1) Losing Your Mind (Pride & Glory)
2) Horse Called War (Pride & Glory)
3) Between Heaven And Hell (Book Of Shadows)
4) Sold My Soul (Book Of Shadows)
5) Bored To Tears (Sonic Brew)
6) Bleed For Me (1919 Eternal)
7) TAZ (Sonic Brew)
8) Counterfiet God (Stronger Than Death)
9) Stronger Than Death (Stronger Than Death)
10) Speedball (1919 Eternal)
11) Demise Of Sanity (1919 Eternal)
12) We Live No More (The Blessed Hellride)
13) Stillborn (The Blessed Hellride)
14) The Blessed Hellride (The Blessed Hellride)
15) Crazy Or High (The Blessed Hellride)
16) House Of Doom (The Blessed Hellride)
17) Takillya (The Blessed Hellride)
18) Doomsday Inc. (New Release)
19) SDMF (New Release)
So now you can judge for yourselves. Every Greatests Hits album causes some sort of stir. Whether it's "Why does KISS and Iron Maiden put out so many?" or "Why are these songs there and not others?". I'll leave that to you. For me, it was a very enjoyable album and I can see myself putting it in the player on occasion. My questions would arise for the selections of "Speedball" and "Takillya". They're not that long and are basically filler, I would assume. It's not like they're "Eruption" or something like that, so there's no real need to include them. I'm sure a great guitarist like Zakk could do some stellar work to show off on a greatest hits record. Hell, his work on "America The Beautiful" would have been a nice addition.
But as I said, I'll leave that up to you, the reader, to discuss.
Overall, I liked this record. I'm glad that men like Zakk and and the guys still live the lifestyle and play the music. I like the grumbling and thudding tones that surround BLS. I'm also scared of Zakk and the pain that I'm sure he could inflict.
I am an honest man.
I am D-Day.
Enjoy.
11/11/05
