BLACK-BONE: "Blessing In Disguise"

Rating: RRR
Label: SPV/Steamhamer
Review by Martien Koolen

This young rock trio from The Netherlands have recently signed a recording deal with Steamhammer/SPV and they have released their new album Blessing In Disguise on 18 September. Steef van den Bogaard (guitar/vocals), Sven Hompes ( bass guitar/vocals) and Jules Eck (drums) debuted with Back To Mayhem in 2012 and since then their popularity has grown. Furthermore these young musicians toured with the likes of Deep Purple, Saxon, Slash, Status Quo and Chickenfoot and this of course also helped a lot to become more known in the music industry. Black-Bone plays heavy rock and roll at its best and they are obviously influenced by iconic bands like Guns N' Roses and AC/DC; but they surely have their own musical style. The album, produced by Peter van Elderen (frontman/guitarist of Peter Pan Speedrock), the albums kicks off with the up tempo Nothing But History (the first single of the album); a song that reminds me of the rather unknown Dutch band New Adventures. Suicide Ain't No Way Out is one of the best songs, filled with great hooks and riffs and an excellent rough guitar solo. Wrong is a power ballad, which is new for Black-Bone as they have never played ballads before, and is rather melodic with two great guitar solos. Wrong has a kind of arena rock ambition and it could be a great anthem for these guys. But the musical highlight of this album is the track Save It For Tomorrow, which is real headbanging stuff, with heavy, catchy musical passages, lots of variety and again a more than superb guitar solo in the middle of the track. However,after listening to the album a couple of times I have to say that Black-Bone's songs, like Never Too Loud, Ashereah, You Gotta Nerve and Wasted Years tend to be very similar to each other. Meaning: the same tempos, similar riffs/hooks and the same vocals, which makes this album a bit too predictable... But nevertheless these three young Dutch musicians grab you by the balls and showcase their stuff in a very positive and aggressive way.Let's see what the future will bring for this promising band and until then, just enjoy Blessing In Disguise, at maximum volume of course, that goes without saying. Best tracks to listen to: Suicide, Wrong and Save It For Tomorrow!