It is
indeed true. This is the very first Headliner Tour of Zakk Wylde and his
Black Label Society here in Europe. So far the band had to cope with
support jobs, which of course gave us a little clue about their
live works, but not what really what they're all about posting their
whole vibe. Zakk Wylde made himself a name as Ozzys long term guitarist.
But this job wasn't the none plus ultra for him. It's been a job and
good start to his own popularity. Why he had finally left Ozzy's band is
not really clear. Did he have to go, or did he just leave... never mind,
as it didn't do him any harm. With Black Label Society he is now more
successful than ever and is still climbing the staircase of success
upwards. - Whereby it should be said, that BLS is actually a one man
project. Zakk is the boss, he writes the songs and he gives the
direction. The rest of the group, who is Nick Catanese – The Evil Twin
(Rhythm Guitar), John "JD" DeServio(Bass) and new guy – Johnny Kelly
(drums) are his employees. Although those 3 boys have developed their
own personality, which gets noticed by the audiance despite Zakk's huge
ego. And so this band line up is indeed a harmonic unit, which comes
across pretty well at live shows. And that again, my friends, can be
checked out best at an intimate Headliner gig, as the one here tonight
in Munich at the Theaterfabrik. Meanwhile Godsized are trying to warm up the audiance - an audiance who probably nver have heard of this band before.... They look like strong wood workers, taller then 6 feet, and you could think, they are from the States like BLS or even from Canada. But they are not! Godsized are a british band from Croydon England and they are: Effon (Drums), Gav (Bass), Glen (Voc7Git) and Neil (Git). - They don't have a record deal yet and no full CD out, but only 2 selfproduced EPs. But there are plans for a debutalbum shortly to come out. There
music can be described as so called Stonerrock meets Southernrock. The
songs are very long and powerrful. That's why the band can only manage
about 6 tracks within the given 40 minutes time. Obviously the audiance
does like their performance, and also I'd say - not bad at all. It's
nothing innovative though, which does stuck too long in our memory (exept
maybe the good looking bassist :-)))) The stars, or should I better say - the star of tonight then bombs in like a desertstorm, after the curtain has dropped. Only
the usual pyroshow is missing to make the impression perfect. But well,
we all know, what Munich's authoritys think about pyros:-( . And that's
why those are only allowed in very large venues and only at some
exeptions. But well, there ain't any needed here really. It's Zakk Wylde
himself who offers us a deep impression with his appearance. Only
the holy spirit is missing. At least that's my impression when I see
this cross and and other utensils on his mic. - And I do remember past
talks with him, where he had told me, that he and his large family
always go to church on sundays. The skulls on the mic rather symbolize
the logo of the band and not so much a metal cult in first place. - We
gotta say, that those 20 years with Ozzy Osbourne has changed Zakks
personality a lot. It's not only his behaviour, reminding us rather on a
deep provincial farmer, it's also his look which has changed from a
smart good looking Metal adonis to a rather huge full bearded cupboard.
But never mind, this is not from interest that much, as it's more the
music which should do the talking, and it does indeed. From the ultra hard metal riff 'till the pathetic rockballad, we do get everything here..... Just mentioned ballad is 'In This River' from the 2005 album 'Mafia', played by Zakk seated on keyboasrds. But apart from that, it's rather the hard beat ruling the scenery, whereby JD and Nick do a lot to make it happen. No band could be more diverse than this here. Next to the almighty Zakk Wylde, JD seems like David vs. Goliath. Rhythm guitarist Nick does communicate a lot with the audiance and owns the most charming grin since George Clooney. And Johnny Kelly beats the hell out of his drums beeing probably happy to spread nowadays a much more positive energy then with Type 'O'Negative back then... And Zakk himself enjoys our bavarian beer throughout the show. He obviously luv's it. The mood in here is great the sound real powerful and very loud. The audiance is boiling like the Ätna just before an erruption. With
the song ‚Stillborn’ from the Album „The Blessed Hellride“,
this Heavy Metal orgy of 90 minutes is finished. No encore given,
as Zakk thinks - it's not needed, or better this is already included in
the show. So well - what else to say? - It's been a solid american
Hardrock Show with the seriousness of a Grizzly bear and the charming
aura of an impulisve backing band and 800 fans are more than satisfied.
That's it! |