Zakk has grown as a song writer and has gotten more creative with his choice of words, less beer, booze and babes on "Mafia". 'Forever Down', 'You Must Be Blind' and 'Say What You Will' are solid pounding rompers, I like when he does these mid paced headbangers (see I do like some of his songs). Still I find the chorus flat but the guitar solos rip and the drums pound.
'In this River' is a ballad dedicated to his deceased friend Dimebag Darrel of Pantera, a side of Zakk’s voice I enjoy done with a piano accompaniment. See people, its ok to write a ballad so stop giving the more melodic bands a hard time, if Zakk can do it and it is looked at as quality, then others can too.
"Mafia" also features great artwork with a gun toting skeleton in a pin strip suit and the lyrics sheet set up like a newspaper called the BLS Mafia Times.
Overall this is his best work to date, songwriter wise and production also. I’m on the fence with Black Label, some of this stuff is cool, I do enjoy them better live.