Pride & Glory: Pride & Glory(1994)

 

Do you Folk’s remember that time back in early 1992 when Ozzy Osbourne announced to the world that his tour for that year was going to be his last ever romp around the world? Ozzy even went as far as to call it his No More Tours Tour 1992.

Well, I do as myself and my two buddies (Oink’s and Andre) grabbed tickets to Ozzy’s Minneapolis show as we thought the Ozzman was done!

Even Ozzy’s guitarist Zakk Wylde thought his Boss (Ozzy) was done as well as two years later(1994) Zakk released his debut self titled solo album titled Pride & Glory. Which even in the year of 2019 stands the test the time of an album that simply put is..

FRIGGIN BRILLIANT!

Zakk back at that time made an album that is the exact opposite of what he had been doing with Ozzy which was a brilliant move as if you’re looking for Ozzy like leftover tracks forget about it.

Wylde goes down into the fox hole of Southern Rock on this album that is chock full of huge jams that as the listener grabs you by the throat!

Pride & Glory was a three-piece power trio if there ever was one. These guys had chops man. Brian Tichy’s drums like his life depended on it and adds a ton of percussion to the songs. James LoMenzo!

Does that name ring a bell? Well back in the late 80’s early 90’s James was the 4 stringer for Hairspray Icons White Lion who had a few decent albums out but fizzled out in 91 before even Grunge wiped out anything Hairspray or Bandanna related to Hair Metal! Make no mistake that LoMenzo riffs on that Bass like a lunatic and if you don’t believe me ask my pal the Mighty ‘HMO’ who says…

‘He really does as well. That walking bass behind the Horse Called War solo! He steals the show there.’

If you can’t trust the spoken truth of HMO who can you trust!

Pride & Glory Track Listing:

01. Losin’ Your Mind
02. Horse Called War
03. Shine On
04. Lovin’ Woman
05. Harvester of Pain
06. The Chosen One
07. Sweet Jesus
08. Troubled Wine
09. Machine Gun Man
10. Cry Me a River
11.  Toe’n The Line
12. Found a Friend
13. Fadin’ Away
14. Hate Your Guts

14 Tracks clocking in at just 74 minutes has bandleader Zakk taking you all on a journey of metalized countrified southern rock complete with a banjo that opens Losin Your Mind before a wall of Marshalls whack your brains into submission as Zakk is off and running.

I love Zakk’s playing on this album as its the exact opposite style of what he was doing with Ozz. Zakk drives that wah pedal in the ground at times.

These songs are Southern Like Rockers. Think Skynrd on Steroids. Even Zakk’s voice has that southern like drawl at times but he shows different sides to himself as the piano-driven ballad-like Sweet Jesus proves.

Make no mistake though that this album is more of a fist to your face with massive riffs of rock and when I talk of the end of the album GEMS track 11 that being Toe’n The Line is just that!

Over 7 minutes of bombastic rock in all its glory here. A huge fireball of riffs dominates this track.  So good. Click the video I posted below to have your ass handed to you! The video says its Losin Your Mind but trust me folk’s it Toe’n The Line!

Crazy good this album is and of course Zakk for some reason folded this band after this release which just plain sucks as, to be honest with you as I never could get into that BLS stuff he’s doing. But maybe someday he will bring these guys back for one more spin around the sun.

In today’s world of social media, it’s great to connect with fellow Bloggers through messenger. It was HMO ironically enough in one of our group chats brought up the Pride & Glory album reissue and it was like ‘Friggin A Dude I gotta dig that one out” in which I did and the best thing about this album is that it does not sound dated. It could have been released last week.

As mentioned this album has been reissued this year with bonus cover songs as I’m sure those are all killer as well but I’m okey-dokey with the original tracklisting!

In this day and age of streaming this and streaming that. Check it out and download this album. It is so friggin good that it should actually be in my TOP 10 Albums for this year but give Zakk credit as back in 94 he didn’t give a shit about Grunge.  Zakk just took his own style of swamp rock and delivered it to the masses!

 

 

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