Dark Chapel

DARIO LORIA — WHO HAS SPLIT BLACK LABEL SOCIETY'S GUITAR DUTIES WITH ZAKK WYLDE SINCE 2014 — DELIVERS SOME SERIOUS FUEL-INJECTED MOTO-METAL FURY ON SPIRIT IN THE GLASS

- Gregory Adams

DARIO LORINA OFTEN blazes licks on one of his many EMG-loaded Wylde Audio axes — from a brawny Warhammer to a devilishly pointy Goreghen offset he hoists while playing in Zakk Wylde's iconic Southern-doom crew, Black Label Society. Impressive though they all may be, when the Boston-raised, Vegas-based guitarist was recording the debut album from his new hard rock force, Dark Chapel, Lorina relied on a family heirloom to get the job done: his father's old Les Paul Standard.

“It was under my dad's bed when I was a kid first learning how to play guitar,” he says of the “Holy Grail” Gibson he's still wowed by to this day, though he adds that his actual starter six-string was a Strat-shaped Samick. It took some time before Lorina's papa let him hold that Les Paul — let alone play it — but even eyeballing the thing was a major event back then. “When it slid out from underneath the bed... it was like the heavens were opening up.”

No doubt, Lorina's built up a god-tier guitar game ever since. After getting his start as a 16-year-old prodigy in former Warrant singer Jani Lane's backing band, Lorina spent time with veteran Sunset Strippers Lizzy Borden, ripped out a pair of killer instrumental solo albums and most famously joined Black Label Society in 2014 (eventually going toe-to-toe with Wylde on their 2021 record,