I had the opportunity to sit down Oct. 15 for a telephone interview with John "JD" DeServio, the 43-year-old bassist for metal band Black Label Society, to talk about his expanded role in the band; the band's newest album, Order of the Black, released Aug. 10; and its current tour of the U.S. and Canada.Black Label Society has long been known as the band of former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde. Less well-known, though, is the fact that Wylde and DeServio have been friends since well before the band's formation. "Me and Zakk grew up together. We knew each other before he even got in Ozzy," DeServio says. "We had met because we were both killin' on our instruments: He was an amazing guitar player, and I was rippin' on the bass, so we became friends and kept in touch and jammed, ... and then he got the Ozzy gig and it was like, 'Damn!' so we were totally psyched."

So then, I had to ask: What is it like working with a band-mate who's getting all the attention? "Oh, it sucks!" DeServio says, laughing. "I really hate him, but you know what? I gotta put food on my table, so I'm gonna put up with him." I suggest that perhaps he take the frontman role from Wylde so that it can be his band for a little while, to which DeServio explains matter-of-factly, "It is my band. ... Between you and me, it's my band." And apparently Wylde knows it too. Says DeServio, "When you interview [Wylde], say, 'Yeah, I was interviewing JD, and he said it's JD's band. How do you feel?' and he'll be like, 'Yeah, it's his band, dude.'"

DeServio accompanied the band on the tour supporting its first album, Sonic Brew (1999), and after the completion of the tour in 2000, he left the band and rejoined in 2005 for the tour supporting the album Mafia. DeServio returned to an immensely more popular band than the one he had left 5 years earlier. "The first tour, ... we were playing littler places, but they were always great fans," he reminisces, "so when I got back in '05, I couldn't believe how big it had gotten, and now it's even getting bigger and bigger and better and better, so it's awesome."

Order of the Black is BLS' eighth studio album, reaching the fourth spot on the Billboard 200 after selling about 33,000 copies in its first week. This album also features an expanded role for DeServio: "I co-produced the record with Zakk, and I got to mix it, so sonically I'm really excited about it because I had everything to do with it. And it's one of our best-sounding records we've ever put out, so I'm really proud of that," he beams.

DeServio says that his favorite song on Order of the Black is "Overlord," which he says will be the album's third single, following "Parade of the Dead" and "Crazy Horse."

Of "Overlord," DeServio says, "It's just heavy, pretty driving. When we wrote it, that was the one that I thought right away was going to be the radio song, you know?"

Yes, I do know; this is the essence of what makes BLS so much fun to listen to and what makes Order of the Black, in my opinion, the best BLS album to date. BLS is in the riff-making business. Wylde lays down a simple but unmistakably metal groove on top of an in-your-face rhythm section, and each song lives in that groove as the vocals enter and exit for the verses and chorus. The songs ultimately transition to an appropriately blazing solo by Wylde laden with even more of his signature pinch harmonics than the riffs themselves. In its newest album, BLS has embraced this recipe and delivered a lineup of heavy tunes that burrowed deep into my memory so that hours after listening, I still find myself bobbing my head along with the mental playback. The riffs are catchier than in previous albums, and in BLS' world, that means everything.

Even the vocals take a backseat to the riffs themselves, and DeServio's mixing reflects this. I cannot understand the words Wylde vocalizes half the time, but it really doesn't make a difference. In fact, I'd say it helps the overall quality of the album that Wylde's less-than-amazing voice is hidden behind the aural assault of the heavily amplified instruments.

To my dismay, Order of the Black continues the BLS tradition of devoting significant album space to underwhelming rock ballads. Four of the album's 13 tracks feature Wylde playing softly and slowly on his piano or acoustic guitar, and while these songs add variation to the album, they lack the memorability of the hard-rockers. For a change of pace from the heavy riffs, I much prefer the 49-second speedy acoustic guitar solo "Chupacabra," which is actually quite fun and surprising, and Wylde's piano is better suited for the tension-building interlude of the penultimate track, "Riders of the Damned," before it kicks back into its guitar solo atop a heavy, catchy riff.

I asked DeServio for a secret about the album that no one else knows. "I had to fly in a guitar player to play all of Zakk's parts, and a singer, so it's not even Zakk on the record," he says, laughing as he speaks. "He doesn't know, so don't tell him!" Spoken like a true brother.

BLS is in the midst of a 2-month tour of the U.S. and Canada in support of the new album, along with Children of Bodom, Clutch and 2cents. I went to the tour's Oct. 19 concert at the House of Blues in Boston, arriving just in time for the headliner. The show was exactly as I had imagined it: The band members were dressed in black with various studded accessories emerging from beneath their long hair, the stage was lined with full-stack amplifiers, and the volume was turned up so loud that the venue's sound system could barely output all the sound demanded of it. When Wylde, DeServio and BLS' new drummer, rock and metal veteran Will Hunt, came onstage together with the band's longtime touring rhythm guitarist, Nick Catanese, I was hit with riff after riff, solo after solo. DeServio's fingers flew across his bass, while Wylde's and Catanese's did the same for their guitars as Hunt pounded tirelessly away at the drums with his arms extending over his head to wind up for every accent.

Like the last time I saw Black Label Society, which was in DeServio's home state of New Jersey during the 2007 Ozzfest tour, my friends and I were probably the only fans in attendance not dressed in black. This night was no different: I was wearing a gray Led Zepplin T-shirt. The audience seemed to be as metal as the band. When I stuck around after the show, I found myself unable to distinguish among who was with the band, who was with the venue and who was simply a fan.

I was intrigued to see that aside from those fans in the front row and those moshing in the middle, most audience members were motionless as they stood and paid close attention to every note. Some people sang along, but the vocals took even more of a backseat in the mix to the instruments than in the album. The band rewarded the fans' attention with extended improvised solos and duets. As in the album, the only parts of the show that did not impress me were the ballads, including one that Wylde actually played on a small electric piano. I did, however, appreciate the rest for my eardrums before the band launched into its next offering.

Despite the stereotypes of famous musicians, DeServio still enjoys his career and playing with Wylde. Over the course of the interview, when DeServio wasn't poking fun at Wylde, the band's tour manager could be heard in the background yelling playfully at DeServio. I even became the butt of a couple of jokes after I admitted that as a drummer, my knowledge of key signatures is weak. "You know what they call somebody who hangs out with a musician?" DeServio asks me. "A drummer." Joking aside, it's nice to see a metal bassist who, despite his hardcore stage persona, is still easy and enjoyable to talk to and can have fun touring and playing music each night with a group of his friends, while so many other bands suffer very publicly from internal strife and work more as business partners than bandmates.

"You know what's crazy, man, is I really get paid for traveling and sitting around," he admits. "I only play for an hour and 20 minutes a night, so that's not even work, man. The work is ... sitting in a bus for 16 hours and getting to the next gig or whatever, so that's the real work. Playing ain't work, bro. That's f---ing fun, man.