Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Black Label Society‘s new album “Engines Of Demolition” will be released on March 27 via MNRK Heavy, as per Blabbermouth. Zakk Wylde discussed the record during a Q&A session held on January 28 at the HMV shop on Oxford Street in London, UK. The 15-track follow-up to 2021’s “Doom Crew Inc.” features the four previously released singles “Name In Blood,” “Broken And Blind,” “The Gallows,” and “Lord Humungus” in addition to a song called “Ozzy’s Song,” which pays homage to the legendary Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne. When asked how “Ozzy’s Song” came to be and when he penned it, Zakk responded as follows.
Well, I actually wrote the music before, obviously, I wrote the lyrics. I had the music done, and I was just, like, ‘I’m really happy with the way it came out,’ but I was just, like, ‘I gotta figure out what I [wanna write about].’ Usually, for me, always the lyrics are last, ‘So I gotta figure out what I wanna sing about.’ Like ‘Lord Humungus’, you know what I mean? So let’s figure out how write a song about Lord Humungus and Mad Max.
I didn’t have any lyrics for it, but after we had laid Ozz to rest… ‘Cause we had done the [‘Back To The Beginning’] show [in early July 2025], and then I went back home. We were playing with Pantera [in the U.S.], and after we did the gig, and I got the phone call from Jack, Jackie boy, and I spoke with Jack that Ozz passed away. So then we flew back over [to the U.K.]. We laid Ozzy to rest, and when I got back home, right after we got back, I went right back to playing with Pantera celebration. It was crazy, ’cause the first gig we did back, when I flew back after we laid Ozzy to rest, was at Jones Beach in New York.
And I remember playing there with Ozzy when it was pouring rain and people all in the front, everybody was standing in knee-high water. So I’ll never forget that show. So we were playing there. So all I was thinking about was Ozzy at that first [Pantera] show [after Ozzy’s funeral]. And then after we got done with the Pantera celebration, once the tour ended, I got home. It’s crazy. In our library room, where we have books, we have Ozzy’s books up on the the library shelves. And I was looking at him while I was listening to the tunes, and then I just wrote the lyrics.
Five years passed since Black Label Society’s released anything, and this is what Wylde had as explanation.
I can’t believe it’s already been — 2021 was when ‘Doom Crew Inc.’ came out. And so we started working on [‘Engines Of Demolition’] middle of 2022. And it was just, like, we went out and did the Pantera celebration for a year. I figured after we got done writing, we’ll put the new Black Label album out. And then we went back out [on tour] again, and I came back and wrote some more riffs and some song ideas. I said, ‘Well, I might as well get the fellows out to the Vatican [Zakk’s home studio called the Black Vatican] again. Then we’ll record some more.’ Then we went back out [on the road] for another year, and then recorded some more. So next thing you know, we’re sitting here talking right now, and four years have gone by in the blink of an eye. To me, it was just, like, ‘All right, I’ll just keep writing until Pantera celebration takes a rest, and then we’ll put the album out.’ There’s no sense of putting the album out if I’m not gonna be able to give it any TLC [tender loving care], you know what I mean?
Wylde works on the songs at the Black Vatican.
Yeah, it always usually takes place at the Vatican when I get home [from tour]. I mean, once we get out on the road, whether we’re doing Zakk Sabbath or we’re doing Pantera celebration or whatever, there’s not that much that I do writing. I might as well jam when I’m in my room. But I might get a song idea or a ballad thing or something on the guitar — maybe — but usually when you’re writing heavy riffs, the instruments that you’re playing on usually dictate and inspire you the way you’re gonna play. When I’m sitting behind the piano, you’re gonna start playing — you’ll get more reflective, mellow, either The Stones, Allman Brothers, Elton [John], The Eagles, that that kind of stuff is gonna come out of you with an acoustic guitar. When you’re playing a piano, you really don’t think about writing something like ‘Supernaut’ or ‘Into The Void’, you know what I mean? But when you’re playing an electric guitar — I’ll plug into my little practice amp at the house, at a low volume with some reverb on it so it sounds like I’m playing at Madison Square Garden with nobody in it, and it’s inspiring. It inspires you to write riff-orientated stuff. So that’s why I usually just wait until I get home.
