Black Label Society - Mafia

I find myself gravitating towards this CD more often lately, so I thought I would give my 2 cents on it.

Zakk Wylde’s voice used to annoy the crap out of me, and thanks to my mp3 player, I have grown to like it after a few spins.

Listening to Mafia, the Black Sabbath and Ozzy influences run rapid throughout the CD. Not only does Zakk approach his vocals in a similar method to Ozzy, sometimes his guitars seem to have that dark, Iommi/Black Sabbath approach.

Even when Zakk slows it down, he crafts some great songs. Mafia has quite a few stand out tracks! Fire It Up, Suicide Messiah, In this River (written for Zakk’s buddy Dimebag Darrell) are my personal favorites. There are quite a few decent tracks on Mafia worth spinning this disc for.

It may take a couple of listens to really get into this CD, but I believe this is one of the top Metal releases of 2005.

Great Stuff!

Track Listing:

1. Fire it Up*
2. What’s in You
3. Suicide Messiah*
4. Forever Down*
5. In This River*
6. You Must Be Blind
7. Death March
8. Dr. Octavia
9. Say What you Will
10. Too Tough to Die
11. Electric HellFire*
12. Spread Your Wings
13. Been A Long Time*
14. Dirt On the Grave*
15. I Never Dreamed

*Best Tracks

~ by Rob Rockitt on November 17, 2006.