Black Label Society - Grimmest Hits

At nearly an hour, Black Label Society’s Grimmest Hits stretches on way too long and with far too much recycled material to be named as though it’s an album full of hits. Zakk Wylde casually saunters through a breezy swirl of Sabbath-y traditional metal, southern guitar leads, and grungy swooning. It’s an album quite content in its comfort zone, which is fine, but I think a little more ambition would have been nice to hear.
The album starts off pretty strong with the infectious, sludgy, stoner groove weaved through “Trampled Down Below”, and the track following it, “Seasons of Falter”, makes nice use of an atmospheric, reverb-y guitar backing during Zakk’s grungy harmony on the chorus. Unfortunately, the album drifts through a valley of forgettable Sabbath worship with a southern flair, a valley that includes a pretty cheesy ballad until it reaches a moment of elevated passion on the melodic “A Love Unreal”, my favorite song on the album. Aside from the tastefully understated (but still overstretched) soulfulness of “The Day That Heaven Had Gone Away”, the rest of what follows is hardly anything new or exciting; ending with “Nothing Left to Say” kind of says so too.
And I really have nothing left to say either, I’m repeatedly shrugging my shoulders as I’m typing this, which I think is a sign of how I feel generally about the album.

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