It is Zakk Wylde’s 59th birthday, and he’s god damned ready to celebrate. To mark the occasion, the eternal metal shredder has finally announced his next album with Black Label Society, which is called Engines of Demolition. Better yet, he’s getting our motors running with their just-delivered new single, “Name in Blood.”
The arrival of BLS’ latest full-length had been teased for years, but was formally announced by Wylde and Co. today (January 14th). It’s been confirmed that the collection includes this latest track, as well as earlier previews “The Gallows,” “Lord Humungus” and “Broken and Blind.”
This time around, Wylde and co-guitarist Dario Lorina set the scene up front with moaning eBow textures and a choppily percussive, almost “For Those About to Rock”-ish kind of riff, before the full band lunge into a grimy, yet anthemic hard rock feel.
Wylde and Lorina hit some fiery, tandem solos, while the bandleader sends a chill through your spine with a yearning, yowling set of lines about walking across “stones of fire” and living your life without fears and regret.
You can sample the track for yourself up above via a new music video that finds Black Label Society rocking “Name in Blood” in a chain-swingin’ locale, and which also has Wylde fusing with fluids-coursing mechanics like a Doom Crew-equivalent of Testuo the Iron Man.
As for the rest of the album, it’s confirmed in a press release that the band’s follow-up to 2022’s Doom Crew Inc. has been in the works between Wylde’s various tours with Pantera, BLS and Zakk Sabbath. The album’s “Ozzy’s Song” is described as the musician’s “most personally profound and heartfelt ballad to date,” and a tribute to “the man who started this all for Zakk.”
“Engines of Demolition is a sincere ride through the peaks and valleys of the last four years from start to finish, some of the highest highs and lowest lows and everything in between,” Wylde summed up in a statement. Engines of Demolition is out March 27th through MNRK Heavy / Spinefarm.
Ahead of the album release, Black Label Society mount a North American tour with Zakk Sabbath and Lorina’s Dark Chapel. The tour kicks off February 27th at San Antonio, Texas’ Boeing Center at Tech Port, and runs off-and-on throughout the spring before wrapping things up May 14th at Nashville, Tennessee’s Ryman Auditorium.
You’ll find the rest of the date details here.
Engines of Demolition tracklisting:
Name in Blood
Gatherer of Souls
The Hand of Tomorrows Grave
Better Days & Wiser Times
Broken and Blind
The Gallows
Above & Below
Back To Me
Lord Humungus
Pedal to the Floor
Broken Pieces
The Stranger
Ozzy’s Song