This companion piece to
Black Label Society's 2010 offering
Order of the Black finds
Zakk Wylde and company running through selected tracks from the record, as well as a handful that didn’t make the cut, like a lovely rendition of
Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home," in an acoustic fashion. Stripped down, songs like “Overlord” and “Parade of the Dead” owe more to
Alice in Chains' 1996
Unplugged album than they do
Black Sabbath or
Led Zeppelin, but the string and piano-laden accompaniment lends a more ornate,
Skynyrd-meets-
Bad Company vibe to the occasion than it does a rainy, hopeless, late-'90s day in Seattle.
Wylde's powerful croon is more pronounced (you can almost hear his colossal beard), and the arrangements are well thought out and appropriate for the material, making it less a gimmicky version, despite its excellent title, of
Order of the Black and more like its dark shadow. [
Song Remains Not the Same was released on LP in 2015.] ~ James Christopher Monger