Photos and Review by Alan Welding
Not every man can or should wear a kilt. Somehow though, Zakk Wylde, singer and guitarist for Zakk Sabbath—an all Black Sabbath cover band—pulls it off and makes it look cool. The Grizzly Adams of metal once again graced our presence with his very distinguishable sonic fury. As the former guitar player for Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk is blessed by his former boss to carry out the blasting of Sabbath live across the country. It was not long ago when Wylde was in town that he was playing with Pantera in place of the late great Dimebag Darryl Abbott. This time no Pantera, but joined by John J. DeServio (from Zakk’s Black Label Society) on bass and Joey Castillo (QOTSA/The Bronx/Circle Jerks) on drums.
The power trio put on a clinic with each of their respective instruments. From the start of “Supernaut” to the last leads of “War Pigs,” it was a flurry of activity and brilliant mimicry with a personal flair—just enough to make it unique, but not so much as to be blasphemous. The thirteen-song set was pitch-perfect. The opening few tunes had a little trouble with balancing out the vocals over the crushing guitars, but this was soon remedied by the time “Symptom of the Universe” was complete.

Held in the historic Roxian Theatre in the McKees Rocks section of Pittsburgh, the venue was an excellent place to intimately see the band and possibly slightly better than the last time they played in 2017 at Stage AE.
With his signature Washburn guitars, Zakk puts more notes together in a second than your ear could possibly take in. But it’s not all sweep picking and finger tapping by any means. Wylde crushes his wah-wah and distortion pedals to the max and somehow manages to keep soul and emotion within a highly technical style. His bandmates are no slouches either as DeServio can play with the best of them and punctuates the original lines of Geezer Butler with abandon. Joey Castillo somehow manages to play with a small kit and gets more tone and texture than drummers with kits three times the size.
Hopefully, Zakk will do another Zakk Sabbath tour soon amongst his Black Label and Pantera duties, as well as still recording a bit with Ozzy. Regardless, you can guarantee he will be back around soon in some capacity as one of the hardest working musicians out there.













