Black Stone Cherry
Kentucky
Mascot
Album number five from
Edmonton, Kentucky, hard rock band Black Stone Cherry bursts from the gate like
a Derby frontrunner, a manic and riff-laden collection of modern hard rock
tunes, running the gamut from headbanger’s delight to more introspective and
soft-edged pseudo-balladry.
Opener, ‘The Way
Of The Future’ is, simply put, one of the most effective hard rock songs I’ve
heard for an age. All bristle and thunder, it brings to mind Soundgarden in
their prime, vocalist Chris Robertson channeling Cornell to a tee. ‘In Our
Dreams’ is equal part Nirvana and Clutch; ‘Shakin’ My Cage’, despite some
softer moments, doesn’t let up on the assault.
Kentucky does stumble here and there – tracks like ‘Long Ride’ (a rather trite
‘rock ballad’) and the lacklustre ‘Born To Die’ seem out of place and just
plain beige by comparison. However, closer ‘The Rambler’, also out of place due
to the fact it’s an acoustic guitar / fiddle track, is a surprisingly poignant
end-point. Robertson’s voice is right on, it’s a track which settles and calms,
chills you out post-riffage. Throw in a cheesy-but-solid version of the Edwin
Starr / Temptations classic ‘War’, and you’ve got yourself a winner of a
southern hard rockin’ album.
Samuel J. Fell
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