ZAKK WYLDE; "Book of Shadows" (Geffen). * * *
Forget what you know about Zakk Wylde, the former lead guitarist for the big daddy of metal, Ozzy Osbourne. Just let the teased hair and power riffs slide by.
Instead, focus your mind on a front porch somewhere in the backwoods of Kentucky. Now turn your ear to some finger-picking blues, gritty slide guitar and throaty laments.
This is the new Zakk Wylde, which began to take shape with another band called Pride & Glory a couple of years back.
Instead of the onslaught of crunching rock (masquerading as the new wave of modern blues), Wylde's new album, "Book of Shadows," is a dark descent into the man's lonely mind - and into a form of enlightenment.
The album is creepy at best, melancholy at worst, but hooks the listener with a contagious snag.
Wylde's music follows a seemingly dirt path of musical expressions that open with an anthem dedicated to indecision, "Heaven and Hell" (inspired by a high school outcast who was killed before she graduated) and closing with "I Thank You Child," a redeeming exploration about the effect of children on a hardened heart.
While not all of the songs have that "wooden shack" feel (the broad arrangements of "Road Back Home" and "Too Numb to Cry"), they are tied together by the will to survive, even when things appear to be too stormy to find direction.
And within this 11-song journey, Wylde eventually finds time to rock out with "1,000,000 Miles Away." But instead of slick head-banging material, the tone of the tune is based on gritty improvisation.
Wylde shows his musical maturity with "Book of Shadows." He's more than just a metal icon's sidekick.