Band:	Black Label Society
Album:	Mafia
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	March 2005

01. Fire It Up
02. What's In You
03. Suicide Messiah
04. Forever Down
05. In This River
06. You Must Be Blind
07. Death March
08. Dr. Octavia
09. 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 [Lynyrd Skynyrd cover] [bonus]

Zakk Wylde, the famous guitarist in Ozzy Osbourne band, stepped out of the shadows in 1993 when he released an album with Pride And Glory. Three years later he released an album under his own name before creating Black Label Society.
And today, 12 years after the Pride And Glory release, he has six albums under the name Black Label Society (if we're not counting the one under his own name) and he is, without doubts, one of the most recognized guitarists on our earth.
Now it's time for his seventh album, and since Ozzy is having problems with his neck and is busy by trying to get Black Sabbath together again, Zakk uses the spear time on Black Label Society.

And what I can report is that Zakk has grown, he's more mature and it's in front of all his voice that's better.
I haven't heard much of the last year's release ("Hangover Music"), but if you compare to his old material, Zakk has evolved much and are today more than a capable singer and even a great pianist, as you can hear in the beautiful ballad "In This River".
But it's mostly his voice (and playing of course) that has bewitched me, but if it's because he has many similarities with Ozzy's voice or just because his voice fits the music perfectly, I don't know, but it's good.

But even if Zakk has evolved as a singer, the music are still as timeless as always, his Doom/Southern Rock is still heavy as lead and it's still as impossible not to fall for.
The material is very strong too, even if I personally would like two or maybe even three outstanding track to give it a higher mark, but on the other hand, with the material "Mafia" contains now the album gets very even.
And as far as I know, there aren't any concept about the Mafia just because the album is named "Mafia", it's more of a way for Zakk to tell us that no one messes with the family unpunished (I guess he means Ozzy there).

It's really hard to write much about a great artist as Zakk Wylde, so I won't even try.
I'll just with my words above recommend you not to ignore one of our worlds, maybe best, guitarists and today best artists. Buy "Mafia" and let your head bang like woodpecker, because that's what I've been doing lately (the reason why I'm a little messy right now, hehe).

Check Out: "Fire it up", "Suicide Messiah", "In This River" damn this is hard, check out the whole album instead, otherwise I'll go on until I written down all the 14 songs.