How about trying to review an impossibility. How do you rate an album with songs you know by heart and have known for at least 40 years. Because, however I twist or turn, all these BLACK SABBATH tunes should be rooted in every Heavy Metal fan around the world. And yes, there have been many tributes to our Heavy and Doom Metal forefathers, but not often one by a band that actually plays them live at their shows too. That band is called ZAKK SABBATH.

All the songs on “Doomed Forever Forever Doomed” are of the Ozzy Osbourne era, and I can understand why. Together with Tony Iommi the person to have worked with Ozzy the longest is Zakk Wylde. So he knows the man inside out. And I have to say, he sometimes gets bloody close to the Dark Prince when using his voice. Thankfully most of the time he sounds like himself on these very authentic covers. Because ZAKK SABBATH has decided to stay as close as then humanly can to the originals, only adding a second rhythm guitar in the mix.

Is that a good thing? Well, in some songs it is, like “War Pigs”. But in others it diminishes the eerie feeling that the original gave off. A good example of this is “Iron Man”. Here the second layer of rhythm guitars doesn’t feel right, makes it sound just that bit heavier, but also more plain. What I do like is that Zakk Wylde hasn’t tried to replicate all the Tony Iommi solo’s, but filled them in in the way we know he is capable of. In 2020 ZAKK SABBATH had already released an album called “Vertigo”, which actually was the original record label for BLACK SABBATH. Nice touch, though. This time the title refers to the two albums, together giving you 77 minutes of quality music. For the Metalheads who are already familiar with the original recordings, this will not add anything. Unless you are an avid collector of anything related to Zakk Wylde or BLACK SABBATH, then you need to acquire this one. The same goes if you are not familiar with the Godfathers of Metal, then you need to listen to this, as to evolve to BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, OZZY OSBOURNE and of course BLACK SABBATH. But before go, I will admit that I have really enjoyed listening to ZAKK SABBATH and “Doomed Forever Forever Doomed”.