January 21, 2023

Zakk Sabbath at Encore, Tucson

On January 19th, 2024, Zakk Wylde brought his Black Sabbath cover band Zakk Sabbath to the Encore in Tucson, AZ. Zakk Sabbath was formed in 2014 by Zakk (BLS/Ozzy/Pantera) who handles Vocals/Guitars and is currently joined by Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (Ozzy, Rob Zombie) on Bass Guitar, and Joey Castillo (Danzig, Queens of the Stone Age) on Drums. Zakk Sabbath will release a new double album, "Doomed Forever Forever Doomed", on March 1, 2024. The set will contain Zakk Sabbath’s brilliant takes on the Birmingham Four's classic heavy metal masterpieces "Paranoid" (1970) and "Master Of Reality" (1971). Zakk is a beast that seems to never slow down. Which was very obvious during this show. It was just non-stop in-your-face blistering guitar work on top of some dark and heavy Sabbath grooves. The opening band was The Native Howl, a band out of Michigan. Their music is a blend of bluegrass and thrash metal, which they affectionately call, “Thrash Grass”. The Native Howl is Alex Holycross (Guitar, Bouzouki, Lead Vocals), Jake Sawicki (Guitar, Banjo, Vocals), Mark Chandler (Bass, Vocals), and Zach Bolling (Drums, Percussion). One song that stood out that night was their song, “Harvester Of Constant Sorrow”. Which combines both Metallica and Soggy Bottom Boys…yes, very interesting. They also played their new single, “Can’t Sleep” which was released in October 2023. This was an amazing show, and was glad to take my two young sons to see it because this is as close as they will get to seeing Black Sabbath. They too thought it was an amazing show. The Tucson show was the next-to-last show on this tour, but I have a feeling they will add another leg soon. Like I said before, Zakk is a beast and he refuses to slow down.

Photo Coverage:

Zakk Sabbath

The Native Howl