Sin and Bones is Fozzy's third "serious" album and fifth overall, their first two being fun cover albums, filled with songs from obvious influences like Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Accept, and W.A.S.P. Note that last name, because this mighty metal machine comes courtesy of a wrestler (Chris Jericho) and a rap-metal guitarist (Stuck Mojo's Rich Ward, aka the Duke) who, along with Dio and Ozzy, dig Blackie Lawless, so don't think the word "restraint" will get thrown around here much.

On the contrary, Fozzy rock over the top like Spinal Tap never happened, as the Alice Cooper-sized opener, "Spider in My Mouth," does the creepy kid, M.

Night Shyamalan thing with a young girl deadpanning "Itsy Bitsy Spider," right before Jericho and company pummel the speakers with some cursed roadhouse music ("I read a book that was written in my blood/And embossed with my skin").

It's Kiss-sized ambition, Jack Kirby comics come to life, and a soundtrack worthy of the most mammoth of video games as lead single "Sandpaper" combines Cowboy Troy with DragonForce for some new kind of horned beast, rapping and roaring while high on moonshine.

When it comes to the power ballad, "Inside My Head" is more "God of Thunder" than Nickelback since Fozzy are tortured like the Hulk or Swamp Thing were tortured, and there will be no emo-kid sniveling.

Jericho mentioned that this was Fozzy's "Black Album," throwing some metal fans into a message-board tizzy because that 1991 masterpiece is really called Metallica, but since Mastodon went astral, Dio passed, and Ghost are just so mysterious, Fozzy serve a purpose, getting metal fans to that Frank Frazetta place in a riff or two, while offering some modern twists that can be taken as fun, shameless, or both.