The Song Remains Not the Same

The Song Remains Not the Same brings together acoustic renditions of songs from Black Label Society's 2010 album Order of the Black, along with a few key cover versions that reveal some of Zakk Wylde’s dearest influences. It’s surprising how much “Parade of the Dead” and “Riders of the Damned” have changed from the earlier versions. Previously majestic, impenetrable mountains of hard rock, they're now presented as lakes: unnervingly still and full of depth. There are still undercurrents of attitude in Wylde’s famously swaggering guitar, but at its core this is a piano record. The piano serves as a cipher for the kind of songcraft Wylde's looking for. It’s a type of deeply ruminative sweetness found in Neil Young’s “Helpless” and Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” which is why Wylde chose to cover those songs here. Few people in the metal realm can get away with something this defiantly tender, but even when he’s singing the falsetto refrain of Simon’s signature song, something in Wylde remains metal to the marrow.