by Sean Reiter
Zakk Wylde and his Black Label Society bandmates all pulled double duty Saturday night with a headline concert that they supported with their side projects Zakk Sabbath and Dark Chapel to a sold-out and raucous crowd at The Warfield. On a night where The City was bursting at the seams with green-clad St. Patrick’s weekend partiers, the century-old venue was packed with black leather, jeans and patches of Bay Area Metalheads for the return of Wylde and his mates.
Wylde’s career has been filled with huge metal-spots, with tours of duty as lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne (through most of Osbourne’s touring from 1987 until his final Back to The Beginning mega-concert last July) and his current role in Pantera (replacing the late “Dimebag Darrell”) starting in 2022. In between these stadium-filling tours, Wylde formed metal-band Black Label Society in 1998 and his tribute to Osbourne’s Black Sabbath – Zakk Sabbath – in 2014.
Saturday opened with a pounding 30-minute set by Dark Chapel – featuring BLS second guitarist Dario Lorina getting time in the spotlight as lead vocals and guitar. Songs like “Sign of Life” and “Hollow Smile” from their 2025 debut album “Spirit in the Glass” provided demonstration of the quartet’s power. Their rocking cover of Bill Wither’s 1971 hit “Ain’t No Sunshine” caused the biggest audience reaction and showed the band’s diversity before they finished with “We Are Remade” off their debut album.
Zakk Sabbath’s set saw Wylde joined by BLS bandmates bassist JD DeServio and drummer Jeff Fabb. The trio blasted through some of the biggest hits of Ozzy-era Sabbath and had the crowd sweating and shouting along throughout with Wylde’s lead vocals. “Children of the Grave” and “Fairies Wear Boots” brought huge audience enthusiasm that reached a crescendo with the finale of “War Pigs.” Late in the song, Wylde (along with assistance from security guards) took to the center of The Warfied floor to perform a solo with much of it being done above his head. He continued playing above his head as he was led to the side stage entrance and then came all the back across the stage with the guitar still being held and played aloft.
Despite the roar and energy that the Zakk Sabbath performance elicited, there was no doubt left that Black Label Society was the reason the vast majority of fans had come. A pass through the crowd showed it via the massive amount of BLS patches, shirts and jackets – a terrific display of fandom by the “San Francisco Chapter” as Wylde referred to the crowd.
The large BLS-logoed curtain rose above the stage as steam cannons erupted and Wylde, Lorina, DeServio and Fabb launched into 2003’s Funeral Bell as the crowd erupted enthusiastically for the band that is now over a quarter century old. “Name in Blood” off their upcoming album “Engines of Demolition” showed that the band was not content to just rest on their past catalog. As always, Wylde was incredibly compelling throwing his Yeti-like mane of hair back and forth while raising up his powerful arms as he alternately stood behind his skull-studded microphone stand and atop a platform at center stage.
Before the evening’s finale of “Suicide Messiah” and “Stillborn”, the middle of the set provided a thrill with the band transitioning from “Heart of Darkness” into a cover of Ozzy’s “No More Tears”. Wylde then took to the piano for the tender ballad “In This River” that he dedicated to Dimebag Darrel. As Lorina performed a swirling, majestic solo while some in the crowd went analog and raised actual lighter flames up in the air, the song served as the evening’s signature moment of a truly old-school metal show.
