We’ll put aside the bad title for the time being and dive right in. There’s no new material here. Instead, it’s a collection of four mostly-acoustic versions of songs from Order of the Black, four covers that all appeared as bonus tracks on various different versions of that album, an alternate version of “Darkest Days” featuring country singer John Rich, and an instrumental version of the Christmas carol “The First Noel,” which Wylde recorded for a guitar Christmas album some years ago.

We’ll start with the acoustic versions from Order of the Black. “Overlord” is the most upbeat of the bunch, transforming into a grooving, bluesy acoustic jam. The most dramatically different version comes with “Parade of the Dead.” One of the heaviest songs on the last record becomes a dark piano ballad. I’ll most certainly reach for the original version over this one, but it still has a certain appeal. There’s a more soulful feel to the song as a whole and particularly Wylde’s leads, which are the only electrics on the song. “Riders of the Damned,” I think, loses something in the translation. It had one of the best riffs on Order of the Black, but comes off kind of flat here. The best interpretation of the four, though, is “Darkest Days,” which remains largely unchanged in melody, substituting acoustic guitar for the piano of the original. The song was written for this kind of treatment, so it seems a little more comfortable in this format than the others.

Next up are four cover tunes that appeared on various versions of the last album – Black Sabbath’s “Junior’s Eyes,” Neil Young’s “Helpless,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home.” The Sabbath tune, not surprisingly, is the one that’s the most in the Black Label Society wheelhouse. If anything, this version is more Sabbathy than the original, which was a funky, kind of strange song. Wylde and Co. slow it down and give it a much more doomy and dark feel. It’s my personal favorite of the covers. A close second, though, is “Helpless.” BLS has struck gold before with a Young cover, “Heart of Gold,” and they do it again here. It’s a fairly faithful version of the song, but still manages to be just a little more rugged and forlorn.

The only one of the covers that I don’t like at all is “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” It’s a bit flat and lifeless to me, but then I’ve also always disliked the song. I think it’s overrated, and the BLS treatment doesn’t help it. The final cover is “Can’t Find My Way Home,” by Blind Faith, a supergroup of sorts that included Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker. The BLS version is, again, pretty faithful to original, but a little darker, without the hippie-dippy trappings of the late 1960s (and before the Clapton fans go after me, I happen to love the original.) It’s a good cover, but doesn’t even come close to the power of “Junior’s Eyes” or “Helpless.”

“The First Noel” is a good version of the carol with some nice guitar work, and included here just so fans have it, I guess, but I’m not likely to listen to it much outside the holiday season.

I wish I could say the record ended there, but there’s one more song that I have to talk about, the duet with Rich. It’s basically the same version of the song that appears earlier on the album, but with Rich’s vocals added. First, he shows up on “American Idol,” and now this. I’m beginning to wonder a little about Mr. Wylde. It’s not that I’m opposed to him working with a country artist. I happen to be a fan of real country music, and the song lends itself a little to that treatment. It’s just that I would have preferred him to work with an artist that plays real country rather than one of the guys in the vanguard of the candy-coated pop that’s the Nashville version of country these days. It’s a personal gripe, and I’m guessing most BLS fans will probably skip this version of the song anyway, so it hardly matters in the grand scheme.

The Song Remains Not the Same doesn’t offer anything truly new, but it’s a nice little teaser for fans. It offers some new takes on recent songs, and collects the bonus tracks from Order of the Black for those of us who were pissed off by the fact they were scattered over three or four different versions of the record and refused to buy them all just to get all the songs. This one’s mainly for hardcore fans.

Being one of the few bands you can instantly recognize from only few bars or chords, Crowbar have been plying their hefty hues now for 20 years now with a stubborn dedication to their sound that has changed minimally over the course of nine albums. Sure, the labels have changed, producers have come and go and the band has had more line-ups than the New Orleans Saints Linebackers, but the constant girth and steadfast work ethic of one person has remained. And with him, that distinct sound: Kirk Windstein.

Sure, he’s been away flirting with Jamey Jasta in Kingdom of Sorrow and releasing acclaimed albums with Down, but the six year layoff since Lifesblood of The Downtrodden has produced a cleaner, sober Kirk Windstein, and now all his focus, conviction and grizzled years have been concentrated into every note of Sever the Wicked Hand, an unmistakably Crowbar album which shows that staying the course can yield successful results…just ask Dismember and Bolt Thrower.

Joined by guitarist Matthew Brunson (Kingdom Of Sorrow), bassist Patrick Bruders (Goatwhore) and drummer Tommy Buckley (Soilent Green), Crowbar is now rounded out by some other suitably grizzled and Southern and veteran players that imbue the already steamy, crawling Louisiana sound with even more authenticity. Look no further than the first single, “The Cemetery Angels”, for a microcosm of Sever the Wicked Hand’s perfect rendering of Southern sludge; energetic, perky hardcore-ish trot, a solemn chorus and a HUGE, (possibly the hugest groove Crowbar have ever unleashed) breakdown to end the song.

Along with all the expected trademark crumbling, rumbling, oozing heft and Windstein’s trademark gravelly shouts (“Isolation (Desperation)”, “Protector of the Shrine”, “I Only Deal in Truth”, fucking meaty “Cleanse Me , Heal Me”), Sever the Wicked Hand, as with past releases, manages to inject some classy moments of crushing, somber introspection and acoustic southern charm. And we know Crowbar has never been the happiest musical outlet, but these moments seem to be much more of a cathartic release for Windstein, who in the last five years has endured death of loved ones (Dimebag Darrell), birth (his daughter), getting clean and natural disasters (Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath). Moments such as the mid-song break in “As I Become One”, the massive melancholic lurch of “Liquid Sky and Cold Black Earth”, the woeful “Let Me Mourn”, acoustic interlude of “A Farewell to Misery”, and fatherly ballad “Echoes of Eternity” are drenched with emotion, but all of it is undeniably Crowbar. With Windstein himself producing, along with some aid from Zeuss (Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow, Shadows Fall, The Acacia Strain), Sever the Wicked Hand is as big as Crowbar have ever been (musically, not literally).

The only thing that would have made the album more awesome is if the angel on the cover was stabbing Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons with his Fleur D’ lis emblazoned sword of destiny.

Ultimately, Crowbar is the musical personification of New Orleans itself; sweaty, filthy and unwanted, but at its heart, resilient, robust, organic and here to fucking stay.

The newfound energy here probably stems just as much from taking a needed break as from the turmoil of the last few years. In the early part of the decade, Wylde was pumping out a new Black Label Society record every year, and no matter how prolific you are, there’s only so long you can keep that up and continue to produce good music. That was particularly evident on his last outing, the aforementioned Shot to Hell, which had a couple of good songs and a whole lot of uninspired filler. Order of the Black, on the other hand, recaptures the energy of some of his earlier efforts, reminding me of a cross between my personal favorite BLS record, Stronger than Death, and The Blessed Hellride.

The blazing first single from the record, “Parade of the Dead,” sets the tone. It’s fast, loud, aggressive and Wylde shreds all over it. As with that song, there aren’t many surprises on the record. On the faster songs, Wylde plugs in, cranks up and goes crazy, and that’s pretty much what fans were hoping for. There are no misses among the heavier songs on the record, but there are some definite highlights. “Black Sunday” opens with a shred lick from Wylde, and his vocals on the tune sound like a little more countrified version of Sabotage-era Ozzy. The song also has one of the most addictive chorus melodies on the record. “Overlord” finds Zakk working out the wah pedal on an opening lick that could have been pulled straight from a 1970s porn soundtrack, but when the heaviness kicks in it has a solid grounding in Black Sabbath.

“Godspeed Hellbound” delivers a driving hard rock opening before dropping into a nice galloping open riff for the verses. “Southern Dissolution” gives us a plodding beast of a southern groove, akin to some of BLS’ earlier material, and “War of Heaven” opens with a dark intro that reminds me, surprisingly, a little bit of a Slayer intro.

There’s the obligatory acoustic shredfest with “Chupacabra,” and since this is Zakk Wylde, you also expect a few soulful ballads. For the most part, I usually enjoy his softer work (I may be one of the few folks who is a huge fan of Hangover Music). Here, he goes to that well perhaps a bit too often with four of them. The best of the bunch is the piano-driven piece “Darkest Days,” which plays like a cross between Elton John and the Allman Brothers. “Time Waits for No One” and “January” are both just OK, with the latter sounding like something that belonged on his solo record Book of Shadows. The final ballad, “Shallow Grave,” is interesting on the dark verses, but the U2 build-up on the chorus is just a bit too commercial for my tastes.

But the ballads are just the sideshow here. The strength of Order of the Black is in the fact that, despite his newfound sobriety, Wylde has, at least musically, returned to the berserker madman ways that made fans love him in the first place. To be honest, I’m actually glad that the Ozzy anchor is gone and he can now focus his full attention on Black Label Society. This member of the Louisiana Chapter is ready to crank up Order of the Black and raise a glass to Zakk Wylde back on track and rocking his ass off.