CD Review: Zakk Wylde – Book of Shadows II
eOne Music

1. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2016 Digipak CD release of Book Of Shadows II on Discogs. Label: eOne - EOM-CD-9472. Format: CD Album Digipak. Country: US. Genre: Rock. Zakk Wylde - Book Of Shadows II (2016, Digipak, CD) Discogs.
2. Twenty years after the release of Book of Shadows, hard rock guitar slinger Zakk Wylde's debut solo album, he delivers a sequel. The earlier record, now regarded as a classic for its harrowing honesty and expressions of personal darkness, was an anomaly, given its Southern-flavored acoustic roots m.o. (with requisite flourishes of killer electric guitar work).
3. Check out Book of Shadows II (Bonus Track Edition) by Zakk Wylde on Amazon Music. Stream ad-free or purchase CD's and MP3s now on Amazon.com.

Label: Geffen Records - GED 24964. Format: CD Album. Country: Europe. Genre: Rock. Style: Southern Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal Zakk Wylde - Book Of Shadows (1996, CD) Discogs Explore.

All Access Rating: A

Zakk Wylde - Book Of Shadows II 2016

A sequel two decades in the making, Zakk Wylde's Book Of Shadows II seems at odds with the gregarious personality – not to mention the increasingly muscular physique – of its bearded viking of a creator.

Zakk Wylde Website

Foregoing the mighty roar of a typical Black Label Society or Ozzy Osbourne release, Wylde crafts a dog-eared, toned-down hymnal of introspective, bittersweet ballads with a soulful Southern-rock drawl reminiscent of the Allman Brothers on this, his beautifully rendered second solo album.
The assured work of a man once broken and lost and cautiously hoping beyond hope that he's completely healed, Book of Shadows II, due out on eOne Music, is deeply moving, with the lush, pastoral 'Autumn Changes' and 'Lay Me Down' and a bluesy 'Tears of December' serving notice immediately that Wylde, for all his fortitude, is acutely aware of his all-too-human vulnerability. 'Darkest Hour' and 'Forgotten Memory' – with its echoes of Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing' – quietly and gracefully swan dive all the way to rock bottom and yearn for salvation, while 'Lost Prayer' has a hopeful, sunny glow ensconced in blues tradition.
Here, warm organ sounds coat a rich, organic blend of tasteful electric and acoustic guitar meditations, all backing resonant vocals soaked in too much melancholy. Melodies slowly evolve and take shape, in no hurry to articulate the inner turmoil of the artist. Tracks such as 'Sorrowed Regret' and 'The Levee' start out spare and haunting, before Wylde adds instrumental flesh to these creaking bones, in a sense gradually bringing them back to life in some sort of folk-rock resurrection. Spiritual and cathartic, Book of Shadows II is full of woe, evocative of a life of hard-earned lessons and turning inward to confront whatever demons are still in there.

Zakk Wylde Book Of Shadows 2 Cda

Zakk Wylde Book Of Shadows

– Peter Lindblad