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Review: Black Label Society - Kings of Damnation - Era '98-'04
Black Label Society
www.blacklabelsociety.net
Kings of Damnation - Era '98-'04

Label: Spitfire Records
Year released: 2005
Duration: 71:50
Tracks: 19
Genre: Heavy Metal

Review online: November 11, 2005
Reviewed by: Michel Renaud
Readers' Rating
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Rated 2/5 (40%) (8 Votes)
Review

I've never big too fond of the very little Black Label Society work I've heard before, and even less of Zakk Wylde who seems to want to outdo Phil Anselmo when it comes to earning the title of "biggest retard in metal". Well at least he can shred, which I guess is what matters here. Alright, with that out of my system, let's get to the goods. This is a simple best-of compilation, with two new songs, "SDMF" and "Doomsday Inc." which are probably there to give those who have the rest of the tracks an incentive to buy this. After all, what's the point of buying a best-of if you have all the studio albums with all the tracks on them? I only have one CD, but I've heard of a version with a bonus disc with covers on it. A lot of the material here is very tame. There's quite a bit of tame stuff that barely registers as rock, let alone metal on here, but there are still a few cool tracks here and there. One thing is for sure, this is quite varied in terms of sound, from acoustic to ballads to rock to downright shredding metal with the occasional southern rock material popping up. One definitely can't say that there isn't variety in this band's material. The more "metallic" material often has that modern "groove" style that I personally am not fond of, but it's either tolerable or actually not bad at all depending on the song.

I see best-ofs as an introduction to a band's material. Well, not being a connoisseur of BLS' work, I am probably in the target demographics and I can say that nothing I've heard here makes me want to rush out to buy a studio album. But then again this is really not a style I'm much into, so your mileage may vary. Judging by the variety of the material presented here, it looks like you get a taste of the band at various stages in its career, so in that respect this can probably be called a good compilation.

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