Before traveling the world as Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist on the legendary singer’s farewell tour later this year, Zakk Wylde is touring the country with his own heavy metal band, Black Label Society, in support of their latest album, “Grimmest Hits,” released on Jan. 19.
Despite the title, this record by the New Jersey-born singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is not a greatest hits collection, but an LP of 12 new tracks of classic-sounding doom and blues-infused metal that hit No. 4 on the Billboard Current Charts, the band’s highest charting album since 2009, and it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hard Music, Billboard Independent, and iTunes Top Rock Albums charts. Black Label Society played three of those songs at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia on Saturday, Feb. 3, along with 12 other heavy tunes from their 20-year discography.
Supported by heavy metal/sludge/stoner icons Corrosion of Conformity, this concert also featured an opening set from Red Fang, creating a perfect bill for fans of slower, groovier Southern and New Orleans-style metal.
Presented by The Noise, this tour wraps up in Black Label’s home of Los Angeles, California on Feb. 27. Wylde will then join Osbourne, or “the boss,” as he calls him, on his “No More Tours 2” trek starting in Mexico in May, following two Florida festival dates in April. The full North American run with Stone Sour kicks off at the PPL Center in Allentown on Thursday, Aug. 30.
Black Label Society setlist, Feb. 3, 2018, Electric Factory, Philadelphia:
Genocide Junkies
Funeral Bell
Suffering Overdue
Bleed for Me
Heart of Darkness
Suicide Messiah
Trampled Down Below
All That Once Shined
Room of Nightmares
Bridge to Cross
In This River
The Blessed Hellride
Fire it Up
Concrete Jungle
Stillborn
