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Muscular Zakk Wylde follows Ozzy’s footsteps in a dress.

Zakk Wylde, primarily known for his long-standing role as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist, has had his own solo projects since the mid-90’s. The heavy-hitting Black Label Society (BLS) is a monstrous band that regularly tours on Ozzfest with Zakk playing two sets, one for each band.

But there’s more to BLS than heavy riffs, fast solos and hardcore lyrics. Wylde has always been a chimera in the industry. His first solo effort when he departed from Ozzy for a temporary period was a three-piece Southern Rock/Blues project called Pride & Glory. That love of acoustic & twelve string guitars utilized so much during that period has carried over into some of the music in BLS, as evident by the first two opening tracks of “Machine Gun Man” and “Dead As Yesterday” on BLS’ new CD & DVD retrospective e called Skullage. Then the band breaks down the walls with the wah pedal driven “All For You.”

Overall, there are 15 tracks on the CD, including 3 live tracks (“The Blessed Hellride,” “Spoke In The Wheel” & “Stillborn”) from a “Slightly Amped” performance featuring Zakk & Nick “Evil Twin” Catanese on 6 & 12-string acoustic guitars performing at Lehigh Valley. “13 Years of Grief,” “Bleed For Me,” “Stillborn,” (electric version which Ozzy does some backing vocals) “Suicide Messiah,” “In This River,” “Fire It Up” and “New Religion” are all tracks on the CD that are repeated on the DVD, although some of the songs on DVD aren’t simply slick music videos but live performances with lots of swearing, beer-drinking and aggressive solos.

The only other song on the DVD not on the CD is a newer track called “We Live No More” and is part of the “Slightly Amped” performance.

In addition to live electric & acoustic footage & videos, there is a really odd interview feature called “Welcome to the Compound.” It’s a combination of serious interview footage, primarily when Zakk is driving his pickup out into the countryside and discusses some of his music as well as his friendship with the late Dimebag Darrell as well as his song dedication to the slain guitarist. There is even some really fun footage of Darrell at Zakk’s house as the guys goof off and have fun in front of a home video camera.

Then there is the other footage… Zakk and a couple of his buddies decided it would be funny to be silly and answer some questions with a weird sense of humor intact. This involves everything from Zakk “accidentally” dropping some of his weights on his foot in his home gym after he gets down with lifting weights and walking a treadmill while drinking beer to the awesome shot of his guitar collection which is no contest to his doll collection. This insanity proceeds to digress into Zakk wearing a dress and playing with his dolls in a treehouse and other mania. I won’t give away all the surprises.

Being someone who has interviewed and met Zakk, I can see his sense of humor leading him to do some of the actions on Skullage, although he took it further than I would’ve ever imagined. But is obvious he’s just having a good laugh and messing with everyone’s heads.

The music videos & CD are all professionally done. The same can be said for the live concert footage. The “Slightly Amped” footage is more of a home video camera shot from a single angle. It’s not bad footage but obviously not as high a caliber as the previous mentioned footage. Needless to say, the “Compound” footage is shot with the guys running around Zakk’s house, yard and in his truck with a small handheld camera.

The DVD is widescreen and the only audio option is Dolby Digital Stereo which kind of stinks. The CD & DVD are also sold separately.

For guitar fans, heavy metal fans & Zakk Wylde maniacs Skullage is a great collection of Black Label Society and one that will surely have the internet buzzing with everyone’s opinion on Zakk’s bizarre humor.

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