The Black Ice Project – And on the Seventh Day…

…this album keeps getting better and better! With around a dozen listens under my belt I’m happy to state that I undervalued this album after one listen. Taken as a whole this is probably the band’s best album since For Those About To Rock - it even surpasses it in places. The eight year gap since Stiff Upper Lip has given the band time to hone these songs to near perfection and rarely does the standard drop below excellent. As far as individual tracks are concerned I’m ready to admit that I under estimated set openers Rock n’ Roll Train and Skies On Fire – both of which have grown steadily in stature with each successive listen. She Likes Rock n’ Roll would also fall into that category but in my defence I did reckon that it might grow on me. Elsewhere Stormy May Day still has a disappointing chorus whilst Money Made remains probably the weakest track on the album. A week of listening seems to have reinforced most of my initial impressions - the one track I got completely wrong though was War Machine. After one listen I thought this song was a filler – now I find the chorus difficult to get out my head. Powerful and brooding, it is let down by only one thing – it is much too short.

So, one week on and I reckon this is a serious contender for album of the year – what will I think in three weeks time?

The Black Ice Project – Day One

Well – I have limited myself to just one listen to Black Ice after picking up a copy on my way home from work last night. My initial thoughts on each track are listed below but what are my impressions of the album as a whole?
The band themselves have raised comparisons with Back in Black. After one listen I would say that Black Ice doesn’t even come close to emulating Brian Johnson’s debut withthe band, but then what does? In fact I would say that Airbourne’s Runnin’ Wild album is better – but AC/DC would have been hung, drawn and quartered for plagiarising their own past if they had produced anything like that. No, at first listen Black Ice is a good album, certainly better than Stiff Upper Lip and worthy of a place in the upper echelons of AC/DC albums – but another Black in Black? Unfortunately not.

Track by Track

Rock n’ Roll Train – I deliberately avoided hearing the first single from the album beforehand. My initial thoughts are that it is a solid rocker – nothing too out of the ordinary.

Skies On Fire – Another solid, unspectacular track.

Big Jack – The first track to make me sit up and take notice and with the best line on the album to date “Santa’s not the only one who’s got a full sack” – heh heh heh!

Anything Goes – Something different. You can imagine Journey covering this song. The best track yet.

War Machine – The only word that came to mind is ‘filler’. It might grow on me though.

Smash n’ Grab – A wee bit different. Almost a 70’s glam feel about it. Are those strings I hear? On an AC/DC album?

Spoilin’ For a Fight – Back to familiar territory but with a slight Southern Rock vibe.

Wheels – Riff reminiscent of Givin’ The Dog A Bone. Shades of Zeppelin – particularly BJ’s singing. Actually BJ is singing rather than screaming on a lot of this album and sounds a lot better for it. Another stand out track.

Decibel – ZZ Top comes to mind. Similar in style to a lot of Stiff Upper Lip but without the weird backing vocal arrangement. The type of sinister, brooding boogie that no-one does better.

Stormy May Day – Very southern rock influenced - even sporting some slide guitar! Let down by a weak chorus.

She Likes Rock n’ Roll – Nothing special on first listen but could well be a crowd please live.

Money Made – There’s that southern vibe again! Competent mid-tempo rocker but nothing out of the ordinary.

Rock n’ Roll Dream – Great vocals - a Plant-like performance. BJ to replace Percy? I’d pay to see it!

Rocking All The Way – A good old fashioned boogie with shades of ZZ Top again.

Black Ice – ZZ Top again but this time with a touch of funk – yes I said F-U-N-K!

Next review in a week......

The Black Ice Project

Over the years, and particularly since I started reviewing for this blog, I have noticed how my impressions of albums changes over time. Quite often an initial rush of enthusiasm trails off fairly quickly or sometimes things improve with time and distance. Rarely does my initial impression change dramatically but occasionally I feel that I have simply got it wrong. Outside influences can play a part too. A good review elsewhere can certainly make you reconsider your opinions as can an interview with the artist – sometimes knowing how the creator views their work can introduce an alternative approach. Personal mood and circumstances have to be borne in mind also. So – I have decided to conduct an experiment. I will re-visit AC/DC’s Black Ice album several times over the first year of it’s release and chronicle how my impressions change with time. I’ll review it after one listen, a week after release, after a month, three months, six months and finally a full year later. I’ve even decided to give the exercise a fancy name – The Black Ice Project. The results should be interesting - first review tomorrow!

Live Albums

The ‘double-live’ often used to be the high water mark of a rock band’s career. Think back to your vinyl collection. Chances are the most dog-eared items were Made In Japan, Strangers In the Night, maybe MSG’s One Night At Budokan, but most definitely Live and Dangerous. Many artists suddenly found their stumbling career path shooting off into the stratosphere on the back of a live album – Frampton Comes Alive is probably the most extreme example. Occasionally single disc live albums would make an impact; Priest’s Unleashed In The East is a prime example; but in the hearts of rock fans of a certain age the double live is king.

All that was in the genre’s heyday of the 70’s and early 80’s. Since then live albums seem to have suffered a progressive decline in popularity. Perhaps the death of vinyl also presaged the demise of the live album. There was undoubtedly something magical about double gatefold sleeves, usually smothered in live shots that was more than a little reminiscent of a concert programme. CD sized booklets were never going to capture this. Improvements in studio production techniques have also had an impact. Many studio albums of the time failed to capture the essential power of a band that was abundantly evident on stage. Live albums somehow, possibly accidentally, overcame this problem and hence became the definitive recorded version – Live & Dangerous illustrating this perfectly.

For whatever reason, live albums no longer seem to hold the position of eminence they once did – which makes the recent batch of issues reviewed below all the more interesting.


Live From Nowhere In Particular – Joe Bonamassa

The perfect example of how the live environment can lift an already impressive catalogue on to a higher plane. Wunderkind Bonamassa has been pedalling his own particular brand of the blues for some time now but it’s on this epic double-live album that the boy becomes a man. His mastery of the blues guitar is beyond question and is showcased superbly on a collection of songs that spans the full range of electric-blues but the surprise here is that it is his breathless voice which really catches the attention. No longer a case of shut-up-and-play-your-guitar, the vocals are delivered with a passion and soulfulness that belies his relative youthfulness. The album is not without issues - extended work outs on Woke up Dreaming and Django/Just Got Paid are both over-long and over-indulgent (although snatches of Dazed & Confused in Just Got Paid does draw back your attention somewhat), but taken as a whole there is a real sense of occasion about this album – exactly what a live album is supposed to invoke.


Rating: Superior


Live in Gdańsk – David Gilmour

One of the greatest rock guitarists of all time captured live in the shipyard where Lech Wałęsa founded Solidarność in 1980 and kick started the fall of the Soviet Union. This was the last night of Gilmour’s On An Island tour and the last full-concert appearance for the late Richard Wright.
After a fairly low-key opening salvo of Dark Side of the Moon excerpts, Gilmour’s On An Island album is played in full, one track after another, with only a slight change in running order to freshen things up. As on the original studio album this is a perfectly pleasant collection of tunes but one that is really only brought to life when Gilmour’s magical guitar kicks-in. Whilst I am genuinely pleased that David has managed to find such happiness in family life, tales of domestic bliss rarely make for great rock music. Frankly I’m surprised that the Gdańsk crowd managed to stay awake until ‘Happy’ Gilmour stopped twiddling about and broke into Shine on You Crazy Diamond. Thankfully that’s when things start to warm up and those in the Polish crowd who didn’t wander off for some chłodnik were rewarded for their patience. Floyd’s ode to Syd Barrett ups the ante exponentially on what has come before and the improvement continues apace for the rest of the set. Comprised completely of Floyd classics of various vintage it includes the positively neolithic Astronomy Domine & Fat Old Sun, the rarely (if ever) aired A Great Day for Freedom and the definitely never played live (by Floyd anyway) Wot's... Uh The Deal? from Obscured By Clouds. Such rarities are very welcome but there is a lingering disappointment that Gilmour didn’t manage to include some tracks from his other (at times excellent) solo work in favour of the slightly flaky On An Island material.
The undoubted highlight of the set is a spine-chilling version of Echoes showcasing Richard Wright heavily. Gilmour and his band apply themselves fully to a song that is now an incredible 37 years old and serve up over 25 minutes of sheer prog bliss that even manages to eclipse set closer Comfortably Numb.
Ultimately the gap in quality between Gilmour’s solo work/post-Waters Floyd work and that from when Pink Floyd were still a band is fully exposed on Live In Gdańsk - clearly illustrating that Floyd were always greater than the sum of their parts. Having said that, Gilmour’s guitar playing remains as awe-inspiring as ever and in the absence of a full Floyd reunion this is as close things are going to get – if you skip straight from track 4 to track 15 that is.

Rating: Superior

Thin Lizzy – UK Tour ‘75

Live & Dangerous is generally accepted as the greatest live album of all-time. I still believe this to be true despite all the rumour and counter-rumours of studio overdubbing that have circulated over the years. No matter how much of that album was recorded in the studio the fact remains that it captures perfectly one of the best ever live bands at the height of their powers and does so better than any of their purely studio albums ever did.

What makes UK ’75 so interesting is that it is an entirely ‘raw’ radio recording of a one night stand. 100% guaranteed no overdubs. The question that raises is … why on earth would Lizzy feel the need to allegedly re-record so much of Live & Dangerous when they were this tight live? Yes – there are mistakes but very few of them, and those that there are generally help in serving up the live atmosphere to even greater effect. The twin guitar attack roars, Downey’s drumming is immaculate and Lynott’s vocals are usually pristine.

The opening half of the set features a selection of criminally overlooked tracks from the Nightlife and Fighting albums (ironically they are probably overlooked because they didn’t feature on Live & Dangerous). Fighting My Way Back , It's Only Money , Wild One, For Those Who Love To Live & Showdown sound all the better for their relative lack of familiarity. The remainder of the album collects live staples that featured on L&D and remained a part of the Lizzy set until the very end. Suicide, Rosalie, The Rocker, Sha La La, Me And The Boys and (“our National Anthem”) Baby Drives Me Crazy roar with the unbridled power of a band straining every sinew to break into the big-time. Add an early prototype version of The Cowboy Song, the rarely heard Little Darling and a fascinating Sound Check Jam into the mix and what comes out is 78 minutes of raw-edged brilliance that is often (adopts hushed whisper) even better than Live & Dangerous!

Rating: Essential

September Album Reviews

New offerings from 3 generations of Rock this month – Old School, 80’s and some new kids on the block.

Death Magnetic - Metallica

Steven Tyler once commented that it was becoming increasingly difficult to write new material because so much good stuff had to be discarded for being too similar to earlier works. Metallica suffer no such qualms and Death Magnetic is instantly accessible because much of it sounds familiar. Put simply this is Metallica’s best offering since the Black Album and a storming return to form following the disappoint of St. Anger. Pounding-riff follows pounding-riff as the band throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Yes, the lyrics are often nonsensical and Lars’ metronomically precise drumming remains as unimaginative as ever but these are minor failings when put against the sheer quality of what’s on offer. Only the plodding instrumental Suicide & Redemption is sub-standard - an unnecessary addition to an otherwise outstanding album.

Defying trends rather than setting them, this is the sound of a band who have realised where their strengths lie and decided to play to them. The outcome is an album that ranks alongside the best they have produced in their 27 year career.

A quick word on the sound quality of the album. I noticed considerable distortion on the louder passages but put it down to a dodgy download. It would seem that I am not alone in this though and that the distortion is present on every format (with the possible exception of the Guitar Hero versions). Hopefully this does not signal a return to the ‘loudness wars’ that spoiled several albums a few years ago – Rush’s Vapor Trails among them.

Rating: Essential


Folklore & Superstition – Black Stone Cherry

I’ve been looking forward to this one since catching them on the Whitesnake/Def Leppard Tour and I’m delighted to report that there is no sign of difficult second syndrome here. A couple of tedious ballads aside this is a mature collection of songs that goes a long way towards re-defining Southern Rock for the modern age. The youthful enthusiasm and sheer joy in playing that was so evident on stage is fully captured here, as is the band’s willingness to adopt an eclectic mix of styles and influences. The doom-laden intensity of Creed is referenced on Sunset and Long Sleeves with the latter also reminiscent of Zak Wylde’s work with Black Label Society. There are wonderful soaring choruses to keep the stadium-rock fraternity happy (Please Come In, Soul Creek and anthem-in-the-making Peace Is Free) as well as balls-to-the-wall rockers (The Bitter End). Of course there’s also a healthy dose of good old fashioned southern rock. Devil’s Queen sees the boys down at the bayou "sippin' whiskey and a-tellin' stories" and ends with a mammoth guitar work-out reminiscent (dare I say it?) of Freebird. There’s even a southern ghost-story in Ghost of Floyd Collins. This is a very special group of young musicians who will have the world at their feet in just a few years if they keep up the development shown here.


Rating: Superior


Motorizer - Motorhead

The secret of Motorhead’s longevity is that they consistently deliver the goods and do it their way without fear or favour. So there’s nothing new and no surprises here but then, would we really want it any other way? Admittedly this is not the greatest album Motorhead have ever produced but given Lemmy’s lifestyle it’s nothing short of a miracle that we have a new album at all – especially one that still remains relevant and fresh in the 21st century. Form is temporary but class is permanent, and Motorhead ooze class from every sweaty pore.

Rating: Good