Thursday, March 5: Black Label Society, "The Beginning... At Last"
Sonic Brew fully went against the grain as far as what was popular in heavy music at the end of the ‘90s, came out on a not very respected indie and was quickly and cheaply put together, but Zakk Wylde had garnered enough goodwill over the past 10 years that most just went along with the Black Label Society concept and gave the guitarist enough grace to let him do his thing and figure it out along the way. But while many figured this was a diversion between stints with Ozzy Zakk turned BLS into a functioning recording entity by simply refusing to stop releasing new material, even if “The Beginning… at Last” was one of the few moments on Sonic Brew where it sounded it like he was trying to write an actual song. The album’s closer was a propulsive ass-kicker that managed to continue the threads Zakk tugged intermittently on No More Tears and Ozzmosis while also sounding distinct from his Ozzy and Pride & Glory records; some of that was definitely due to his low-slung growl but also he had grown into his playing over the years. This track and “Bored to Tears” were the definite high points on Sonic Brew and nodded towards a shockingly (and unnecessarily) prolific discography.
