SOCIETY DUAL
ZAKK WYLDE HAS RELEASED 10 ALBUMS with Black Label Society over roughly the last two decades. And while the band has always functioned as a two-guitar juggernaut onstage (the more axes and amps the better, we suppose), in the studio BLS has always been strictly the Zakk show, with the Wylde One handling all the guitars — from riffs to melodies to solos (and even twin harmonies) — himself.
That is, until now.
Behold Doom Crew Inc., Black Label Society’s 11th record, and the first to feature a second guitarist going lick-for-lick alongside Zakk. And the guitarist in question — 32-year-old Dario Lorina — is, as would be expected, no slouch. Lorina has served as a member of Black Label Society since the tour for 2014’s Catacombs of the Black Vatican, and on his own has released two albums of high-intensity shred on Shrapnel Records, as well as logged time with long-running metal acts like Lizzy Borden.
As for what led Zakk to bring him on board in the studio this time? “Because Dario’s awesome,” he says simply.
MUCH of the beauty, as it were, of Black Label Society’s music is that, to some extent, you always know what to expect — crushing rhythms built on the foundation of what Zakk calls “Mount Riffmore” (that’d be Sabbath, Zeppelin, Cream and Deep Purple); fist-pumping choruses; insanely intricate, mind-bogglingly speedy solos — and Wylde and the band once again deliver in spades. From the Sabbathian stomper “Set You Free” to the jacked-up boogie blues workout “Gather All My Sins,” the classic-rock-on-steroids groover “Shelter Me” to the sludge-metal chugfest “Gospel of Lies,” there’s no shortage of high-octane bangers on Doom Crew Inc. And while there’s also a smattering of characteristic Zakk piano ballads in the form of “Forever and a Day” and the closing “Farewell Ballad,” Doom Crew. is, as Wylde proudly states, a celebration of the power and glory of the guitar.
