BLACK LABEL SOCIETY "The Blessed Hellride"
by Ozzy Stillbourne with some assistance by Jani Bon Neil

Cover: 5 Ozzy's out of 10.
Nothing more than a white cover with a motorcycle engine on it with the BLS skull on it, and of course the band name and album title. It could have been a lot more metal and evil. I would have expected more from Zakk. The white does make it noticeable but it comes off too plain for a CD like this. Looks like a promo CD.

Booklet: 7 Ozzy's out of 10.
Every things is just white with black writing. Each song gets it's own evil looking drawing next to it, so that bumps up the points. You can never go wrong with drawings of skulls and death. There are thanks and credits but no actually photos anywhere.

Songs: 9 Ozzy's out of 10.
What do you know, a song called "Stillborn" and it has Ozzy Osbourne on it. Coincedence? Jani Bon Neil reviewed all the past BLS CDs but since this CD is a tribute to me, I thought I'd do this part, even though I hate writing CD reviews. I'm too simple to give a good review because I'm just like, "Yeah, it's cool" or "It sucks." Reviewing metal CDs shouldn't be too deep and all I'm doing now is taking up space to make it look like I wrote a bunch of shit. See? The more I write, the more it looks like I put effort into this and if I drop a few Metal Edge type comments like, "The wrenching "Suffering Overdue" is a tight composite of angst, regret and swirling melodies intensified by tumultuous accents" or "The Blessed Hellride is magnetic with a ruthless sense of clean and chaotic energy. From the cutting "Final Solution" to the roaring and lavish "Blackened Waters" to the tenacious thrust and affirmative anthem "Stillborn".....then it really sounds like I'm professional and know what I'm talking about. I'm a sneaky bastard. Ok, here's the real review:

Like past Black Label Society CDs, this is filled with brutal riffs and shit like that. The songs are all good motivation for drinking and rioting. Any album with a song called "Stoned And Drunk" gets my respect immediately. Zakk does his best Ozzy impersonation on "We Live No More" and "Doomsday Jesus" by singing higher than he has in the past. It works and he sounds good, probably better than Ozzy himself. There are two acoustic style songs, "The Blessed Hellride" and "Dead Meadow," which has some piano on it. Very similiar to something on Zakk's "Book Of Shadows" CD. Yeah, it's cool.

Comments: This is probably the best Ozzy Osbourne record he never sang.