Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It could be argued that the world needs Black Star Riders like it needs to bang together the heads of those who are quite happy to stoke up the fires of war in the Ukraine. The chances of the latter happening are about as likely as One Direction suddenly throwing their lot into the realms of Heavy Metal, the former much easier to believe; especially with the band’s second album, The Killer Instinct, being unleashed and ready to destroy any doom mongers the planet is hiding up its rigid sleeve.
It somehow is not a problem, if for whatever reason, save the dangers of ignorance, that the group made up of Scott Gorham, Ricky Warwick, Damon Johnson, Robbie Crane and Jimmy Degrasso has so far bypassed the Rock radar that lives within you, it is not an issue, unless you allow The Killer Instinct to fail to materialise on your stereo within a week of it being released. If your intuition, your gut feeling should desert you, fail you at the last minute, then all hope surely is lost and for even the most dedicated of Rock fan it might be time to take a look fondly at the likes of One Direction and allow your music taste to go down a different, more forgiving path.
The Killer Instinct is not something that is amiss from the Black Star Riders’ enthusiasm or expert delivery, it is in the veins, through every single root and branch of the band’s D.N.A. and somehow has learned the art of self replication, reaching out like the bud on the end of a growing Oak tree for extra growth, more room in which to feed the energy that the five musicians with enormous pedigree proudly display.
There are after all beautiful albums, albums that capture the heart, play with the emotions of the listener and beat their message into the mind with unrelenting force, but in songs such as Finest Hour, Charlie I Gotta Go, Through The Motions, Sex, Guns and Gasoline and in the bonus disc extras of an acoustic version of The Killer Instinct, the sensational Gabrielle, which surprisingly for a bonus rocks the socks off pretty much all that comes before it on the main release, and the acoustic version of Blindsided, not only does The Killer Instinct do all that it promises, but it is the assassin you would dream of having take your life, bold, brash, full of style and so utterly sexy that it practically suggests an evening of naughtiness before pulling the trigger.
Some albums are made for the stereo and if the neighbours don’t like it, if the walls shake and the windows rattle, tell them not to worry, The Black Star Riders are in town and not in the mood to take prisoners.
Ian D. Hall