Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Black Country Communion, a supergroup so good they had to give the four members a third album just to satisfy the incredible clamour and deluge from their overwhelming number of fans.
The group certainly need no introduction, the music really does speak for itself, self assured, distinctive, mind blowing and with so much depth it practically carves out a 10 foot deep trench with ease; this is what makes Black Country Communion one of the best bands of the last two decades, and they seem to have managed this in less than three years.
The new album, Afterglow carries on the fine and outstanding tradition of music the four members have already laid down. Aside from adding a completely new chapter to the book on rock and blues, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian and Joe Bonamassa have added enough music to the genre, enough powerful and intensity to the canon to ensure that even if this should prove to be the final hurrah, they will still be talking of Black Country Communion’s overpowering and brilliant music in 50 years time.
Afterglow may have the thought of a dying fire, the embers of raging light that are slowly going out but nothing could be farther from the truth, this magnificent hybrid of American exuberance and English industrialism reaches a zenith that the two previous albums were quite obviously working towards and even if the listeners, fans or even the four musicians didn’t realise it at the start, they have reached the heights that others that will surely follow will struggle to match.
With the album produced once again by Kevin Shirley, Black Country Communion retains the core element that makes them tick louder than Big Ben at midnight. Songs such as The Who-sounding Midnight Sun, the stunning combination of Joe and Glenn’s split vocals on Cry Freedom and the Jason Bonham inspired Common Man make Afterglow not just required listening but making sure it stays in whatever collection you possess for the rest of your natural life. Rock and blues fans may have waited an absolute age for a combination of the right talents to do the mix of genres the music demanded, Black Country Communion have delivered in full.
Afterglow is released on Mercury Records on October 29th 2012.
Ian D. Hall