Janne Stark's Top 13 of 2024

 

1. Thin Lizzy – 1976 – What a GRAND re-issue and respectful and interesting re-remixes. A quality packed gem indeed! 
2. The Watchers – Nyctophilia – Daring to take at least half a step outside of the Black Sabbath void was a solid choice. Still as heavy and solid but with a more personal touch!
3. Worshipper – One Way Trip – Here’s a band that manages to sound original in this day and age. Heavy, chunky, groovy, yet melodic heavy rock!
4. Black Country Communion – V – Back with a vengeance! In my opinion their best album!
5. Judas Priest – Invisible Shield – Another bunch of “oldies” that kick a lot of the newer bands’ butts to kingdom come!
6. Jupiter Cyclops – Age Of Ufonaut – If there’s such a thing as stoner heavy metal, this is it! Killer heavy riffage with a stoner touch.
7. KITSA – Dead By Dawn – If Black Sabbath and King’s X decided to get hitched and get a baby, this may have been it! 
8. Black Debbath – Bortkastet hardrock vol 1 – Can’t help but love these Norwegian heavy rock weirdos! They do know how to riff!
9. Deep Purple - =1 – They may be old but man, they still know how to write solid songs and make them sound great on record. Classic hard rock
10. Alunah – Fever Dream – A band I got into quite recently. Killer female fronted heavy rock!
11. Evergrey – Theories Of Emptiness – Heavy, melancholic, melodic, typical Evergrey, but still different. Their best album in a long time. Killer album!
12. F.K.Ü – The Horror And The Metal – I wouldn’t say I’m a huge thrash metal fan, but I do have a soft spot for F.K.Ü. Their explosive power, tightness, killer songs and tongue in cheek approach just makes me smile and bang! Love it!
13. Lydsyn – Højspænt – Power rock in Danish? Yup, it works! 

Honorable mentions:

The Quill – Wheel Of Confusion

Trapeze – Lost Tapes Vol 2

Green Lung – This Heathen Land

Alicate – Heaven Tonight

Dug Pinnick – Thingamajigger

Freak Kitchen – Everyone Gets Bloody

Moggs Hotel – s/t

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION - II (CD)

Before the debut this really felt like the musical dream team: Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals, Joe Bonamassa on guitar and vocals, Derek Sherinian on keyboards and Jason Bonham on drums. So, was it? Well, I sure wasn’t disappointed in the first effort! On the contrary, it’s been spinning frequently. I did like the pure retro sound of it, even though this has been the subject for debate where some thought it sounded like crap. Already in opener The Outsider you can hear the band has listened to the critique and polished the mix a bit. The guitar is a bit clearer and the keyboards are a bit more prominent. To be honest it does glue together a bit better this time around. I’m surprised they got the follow-up out so quickly considering the problems they had getting their schedules synchronized the first time. I’m not complaining, no sir! This is however no hasty word at all. The songs feel very worked through and no details have been left unattended. In songs like I Can See Your Spirit and The Man In The Middle you find the classic Jimmy Page fifth harmonies nicely tucked in the background. There’s a bigger Zeppelin aura hovering over this album than the previous actually, both in the heavier songs and softer stuff like the acoustic The Battle For Hadriana’s Wall where Bonamassa handles the vocals. A nicely built up number which starts off soft and goes into a fat crescendo section with Telecaster feel in the guitar riffs and a quite subtle but efficient slide guitar mixed with mandolin in the end of the song. Bring back the seventies! I think the combination of Glenn’s and Joe’s is a nice touch. It gives the album a broader sound and both have their own qualities to their voices even if they sound quite different. It feels like they’ve put a bit more effort into the arrangements and production also in a song like Save Me, where it sounds big and dynamic with a touch of Kashmir-style strings enhancing and the beautiful Bonamsassa solo with an oriental touch at times. Another difference is that they have slowed down the tempo a bit and included som softer, yet heavy, songs like An Ordinary Man and Cold. They however don’t stay soft all the way through, but the dynamics are there, in the case of the latter it appears in the form of an double tempo solo part. There are also things that go in a totally different direction. If Bonamassa had sung the southernish Smokestack Woman it would have fit perfectly on any Bonamassa record. Also the subsequent Faithless finds itself in his natural musical habitat, not forgetting the slow blues Little Secret which I hadn’t expected here. The tempo is however picked up again in the phat riffing Crossfire and it all ends with the led heavy Crawl which puts a big fat ending to an album that, after a few spins, actually surpasses the debut!

Janne Stark

Year: 2011

Label: Mascot

Country: USA