Last week, I was able to attend another show that sort of lined up with a cool new release from one of my favorite bands. Zakk Sabbath has been around for quite a while now, and if you are a Zakk Wylde or Black Sabbath fan, they probably need no introduction. As far as I’m concerned, these guys are the best way to enjoy live classic Sabbath tunes in the modern era. The show I went to in Rancho Mirage, CA was the just opening night of the tour, so there are plenty of other chances to catch them around the country over the next several months. It seems like the tour has been selling quite well, but there are still some tickets available at very reasonable prices.
If you are going to check out a show, the first thing you will probably notice is that the band on the new record (and all Zakk Sabbath records) is not the band you will see playing live. On the records, the lineup includes Blasko on bass and Joey Castillo on drums, who are most well known for touring with Ozzy, Rob Zombie and others. For the live shows, you’ll be seeing John DeServino on bass and Jeff Fabb on drums, who are of course both long-term members of Black Label Society. Add in Zakk, and you have ¾ of the full BLS playing Black Sabbath covers. You might think this is somehow disappointing, but I assure you it’s not. As you probably know, these guys are great musicians and put on an amazing show.
Speaking of BLS, the only disappointing aspect of the show for me was that for the rest of the tour, the fourth member of BLS, Dario Lorina, will be opening for Zakk with his own band, Dark Chapel. Due to scheduling conflicts though, they didn’t play on opening night, and I really wished I could have seen them. Their new record, Spirit In The Glass, is a great album, and one everybody should check out. It’s not just another version of BLS or anything like that and is very unique. Obviously, it’s got some great guitar work and songwriting from Dario, and I probably should have written a review on it.
Instead of Dark Chapel, we got to see Use Your Illusion, which is a Guns N’ Roses tribute band. These guys fit in pretty well with the cover band theme and did a great job. I’m not sure if they are on the rest of the tour or not, but I think they are doing at least a few more shows. I’m pretty sure that for the bulk of the dates, the openers will be Dark Chapel and an AC/DC cover band which sounds like a very cool lineup as well. One thing for certain… if you go to one of these shows you will definitely get your moneys worth and have a great time.
When Zakk Sabbath finally took the stage, they played a setlist similar to what they played last year, but with a few changes to it. Two of the notable additions for me were “A National Acrobat” and “Tomorrow’s Dream”, which I had never seen them play live before. They still opened up with “Supernaut” and “Snowblind” and closed with “N.I.B.” and “War Pigs”. I’ve always been surprised they don’t play “Paranoid”, but maybe Zakk is a bit sick of hearing it after playing it thousands of times. In any case, it’s hard to beat the “War Pigs” ending, with the entire audience singing along.
The show did have some emotional moments, with Zakk talking a bit about Ozzy. The crowd responded as you would expect, and it was cool seeing everyone pay tribute to the legend himself. I think as time goes on, people are going to start to see how important high quality tribute acts are. It’s slowly becoming the only way people are going to be able to hear these songs live, and for this type of music at least, there really isn’t a better way to experience it. Rather than just going extinct, acts like Zakk Sabbath keep that in-person connection alive, and give the opportunity to the next generation of fans and future musicians to hear this stuff in a live setting. The fact that Zakk has such a close personal connection with Ozzy and Sabbath is definitely icing on the cake, and I believe these guys are probably one of, if not the most significant tribute act working today.
So, what about this new Greatest Riffs record? This is a one LP release from Magnetic Eye Records, which also put out Doomed Forever / Forever Doomed a couple years back. If you somehow missed that release, you can find my review for it here. It’s a double LP set and includes Zakk inspired remakes of the Paranoid and Master of Reality albums. That’s basically what Zakk Sabbath is… these guys aren’t just doing the songs the exact way you hear them on the record, but putting them together with all that cool, instantly recognizable Zakk tone and feeling that’s exclusively unique to him. There will be pinch harmonics. On all their releases and live shows, the songs are still very faithful to the original versions, but they just have enough of a unique flavor to make them fit Zakk’s style and in some places, expand them a tiny bit.
Greatest Riffs – Zakk Sabbath (Magnetic Eye Records)
A1 The Wizard
A2 N.I.B.
A3 Iron Man
A4 Fairies Wear Boots
A5 Sweet Leaf
B1 War Pigs
B2 Into The Void
B3 Solitude
B4 Evil Woman
B5 Under The Sun
Greatest Riffs was originally released digitally and has been available on the streaming services for quite a while. This is in contrast to their first and second records (Vertigo and the aforementioned Doomed Forever / Forever Doomed) which were physical only releases. In addition to the vinyl, everything is also available on CD, and there were deluxe sets too that included books and DVDs. As of now, Greatest Riffs is available on white, red and standard black vinyl, and can be ordered from the official Zakk Sabbath Bandcamp page and other retailers. The red was a special release, and that’s the one I picked up from some random store online. It was a preorder I placed quite a while ago and I don’t remember the company, but as of now, the red copies aren’t difficult to find.
Zakk Sabbath’s first two records are some of the best sounding modern presses I have heard. I have several copies of each one, and everything from the packaging to the mastering and pressing are superb. From that perspective, Greatest Riffs is no different, and it sounds excellent. My copy was free of any defects, and the record has a nice weight to it. Magnetic Eye doesn’t mess around and only puts out top quality stuff.
There is, however, one thing you need to be aware of before you pick this up. Many of the songs have been shortened, presumably for space reasons when trying to fit all these tracks on a single LP. Sadly, this means that some of the songs fade out in the middle, and we end up losing second guitar solos in some places. This might be a disappointment to some fans, since let’s face it, many of us are buying this stuff because we want to hear Zakk rip solos. Black Sabbath fans also know the songs very well, and when you play the record, you’ll get a feeling of “hey, what happened there? Where’s the rest of the song?”
This doesn’t happen on every track, but when it does happen, it’s very noticeable. The most obvious examples are “Iron Man” and “War Pigs”. Both of these have the ending cut, which eliminates the outro solos. This is unfortunate because to me, these are the best parts of the songs. Thankfully, these two tracks are available in full on the previous vinyl releases. The other good news is that the streaming versions of the songs are not cut, so you can hear the full versions there as well. I have not yet picked up the CD release for Greatest Riffs so I’m not positive that the full versions are on there, but I imagine they probably are.
One of the big highlights of this release for me is the inclusion of “Evil Woman”, which I never expected these guys to do. As fans will know, this track is actually a cover song originally written by a band called Crow, and was released on their 1969 album Crow Music. It was included on the original UK versions of Black Sabbath but was replaced with “Wicked World” by the time the album hit shelves in America. Zakk Sabbath did include this track as a 7” single in their deluxe box set version of Vertigo, but since I am still on the hunt for that set, it’s nice to have it included here.
Overall, I think that Greatest Riffs is certainly going to be a great pickup for most fans. With some of the songs being truncated, it sort of plays like a demo recording that a band might hand out to potential clients or booking agents. Even so, there’s still a lot to be excited about here, and the compilation is definitely a great listen. The cover art is cool, and if you are wondering, the “weathered” type of effect with included ring wear is part of the design. I got my copy signed at the meet and greet before the show (available for around 100 dollars from Sound Rink if it isn’t sold out), but there are also signed copies available at the band’s merch booth for around 50 USD, which I think is a great deal.
The meet and greet is a good value if you have the extra cash. You get early access to the venue and merch, a photo with the band, and an opportunity to have Zakk and the guys sign some stuff. The night I was there, they signed photos, action figures, guitars (Zakk Gibson or Epiphone models, Dime models or Wylde Audio models only) and even one or two arms for tattoos. Zakk and the band couldn’t be nicer, and it is a very cool experience. If that sounds like something you would be into, it’s worth checking availability now, because spots do tend to sell out.
Ratings wise, I think the pressing and the packaging for Greatest Riffs is a solid 10/10. The red vinyl looks great, and I think I’ll probably pick up the other colors at some point. With the last album, more colors were eventually released for different markets, but it remains to be seen as to whether they’ll do that again. The audio is also a 10/10, and the Zakk Sabbath material continues to be some of the best mixed stuff I’ve heard in a long time. This is a great record to play when you want to show off the power of your system. All together though, I’d say that the record gets a 9/10, simply due to some of the songs being shortened.
Greatest Riffs is out now, so make sure to pick up a copy soon before it sells out!