When Zakk Wylde first put BLACK LABEL SOCIETY together, they were a relentless, explosive force, releasing seven studio albums in their first decade and appearing at every festival worth a visit.

Five years after the largely overlooked "Doom Crew Inc", the 12th BLACK LABEL SOCIETY album, "Engines Of Demolition", arrives with the guitarist hurling himself into his own thunderous creativity following the recent death of Ozzy Osbourne.

Confident, cohesive and bereft of clunky filler, this is the most sure-footed and focused Wylde has sounded for a long time.

The 13 songs maintain that level of quality and frequently surpass it too, with incendiary solos galore and vocals as soulful as they are raucous.

The formula remains unchanged, but there are some genuinely great and classy songs here.

"Name In Blood" starts things off with a muscular and melodic opening salvo boasting the first of countless blistering solos.

Elsewhere, "Gatherer Of Souls" brings the SABBATH-worshipping hammer down, decimating peers and pretenders alike; "Better Days & Wiser Times" and "Back To Me" are masterful ballads with big hearts and bigger melodies; and "Pedal To The Floor" is a scabby-knuckled blues metal bonfire with one of the finest bursts of freewheeling virtuosity.

Even the last three tunes shine, with "Broken Pieces" an electrifying psychedelic squall, "The Stranger" another gleaming chip off the old SABBATH block, and the closing "Ozzy's Song" utterly beautiful and a fitting tribute to his ultimate career boost.