Ozzy Osbourne's band is known for a few great things, one being that Ozzy is an incredible songwriter, and the other being his awesome line-up of guitarists. When former guitarist Zakk Wylde formed his own band in '98, greatness could be expected from his group, Black Label Society.
Track Listings:
1. Crazy Horse
2. Overlord
3.Parade of the Dead
4. Darkest Days
5. Black Sunday
6. Southern Dissolution
7. Time Waits for No One
8. Godspeed Hellbound
9. War of Heaven
10. Shallow Grave
11. Chupacabra
12. Riders of the Damned
13. January
The heading track for Order of the Black is titled, "Crazy Horse" and Wylde's work with Ozzy becomes evident when you hear the heavy influence he had on his vocal work. The vocal style carries over to all the songs on the album as well as his guitar's signature heavy and fuzzy "wah" tone
Crazy Horse takes you on a ride as the song's heavily effected intro leads into a great headbanging riff, and top of all that, we get to hear the very best out of Zakk Wylde during his shred-tacular guitar solo. This song is definitely one you could listen to over and over again.
The second heading track, "Overlord" starts out with a funky riff that quickly becomes very heavy after the intro. The chorus is very fun to sing along to, making this a well-deserved live show staple.
Unlike the previous two songs, Parade of the Dead starts out very enjoyably faster than the rest of the album while it's still heavy at the same time, so its placed very well as the third track. Since it has a short run time, many metal-heads will find themselves coming back to this song wanting more.
Darkest Days, Time Waits for No One, Shallow Grave, and January prove that Zakk Wylde can also write memorable slow heart-felt songs. All of these have piano or orchestra instruments which really flashes his skills as a musician, especially in Time Waits for No One.
Now here are the album's low-points: the songs Black Sunday, Southern Dissolution, Godspeed Hellbound, Riders of the Damned, and War of Heaven are very similar in pattern with minor tweaks such as intros here and there. They'll start out really good hyping you up but then let you down when Wylde's vocals come in which unfortunately slows down the whole song.
None of those songs are necessarily bad, they just don't stand very well together. Godspeed Hellbound and Black Sunday are still worth listening to, and maybe the others if you feel as if you really like those two and want more that are similar.
Chupacabra is less than a minute and is a Mexican-styled acoustic shred. Not much to it, but it's fun to listen to.
Conclusion:
Zakk Wylde's song-writing here still had some developing to do. He knows how to capture our attention with his great guitar skills but sometime he just can't drive the songs all the way home.
Order of the Black has some fantastic songs but none are the best I've ever heard. The only songs I would take away from this album are Crazy Horse, Overlord, Parade of the Dead, Time Waits for No One, Godspeed Hellbound, and Black Sunday.
I give this rating a 7/10. What's with Wylde's black fetish by the way?
