Label: Nuclear Blast
Review By: Alan Holloway
Well this is a real turn up for the books, as I wasn’t
really expecting that much. The debut album from Black Star Riders was a bit of
a mess, being half Thin Lizzy and half something else, a result of the band
deciding to ditch the Lizzy moniker half way through. It was a brave move,
nonetheless, and signalled a determination to move forwards instead of living
in the past.
With ‘The Killer Instinct’ Black Star Riders have released a
Black Star Riders album through and through. What this means is that it
definitely sounds plenty like you’d imagine Thin Lizzy might if they were
around today, but it also has a separate identity, one that shares roots with
Lizzy but isn’t shackled by them. Vocalist Rocky Warwick still sounds very like
Phil Lynott, but this means he sounds brilliant, so there’s no complaints here.
Six string slingers Scott Gorham and Damon Johnson seem to compliment each
other well as players and songwriters, and the album gels perfectly throughout.
It’s also a whole lot meatier production wise than the debut, and you can
really feel the thunderous riffs through your bones.
There’s plenty of high energy tracks on offer, and if you
like lead track ‘Killer Instinct’ (there’s an official video on YouTube) you’ll
pretty much love the album. It’s led by a typical twin guitar intro that just
gets your senses sparkling, bolstered when Warwick’s voice comes growling in. the first
five tracks are all golden, with tracks like ‘Charlie I Gotta Go’ and ‘Finest
Hour’ invoking the spirit of Lynott and taking it on a wild ride, whilst ‘Soldierstown’
kicks off with a classic Celtic riff. If I’m honest, the slower ‘Blinsided that
cuts the album in half doesn’t really do much for me, and the four tracks that
follow it are good rather than great, albeit with another great Celtic turn in ‘Turn
In your Arms’.
So what we have here is, overall, a very good album. Some
tracks are better than others but there are no duffers to be seen (or heard).
It certainly sounds like a Black Star Riders album, and for those of you who
might be wondering ‘whatever that is’, it’s ‘The Killer Instinct’. Thin Lizzy
will never be removed from the band’s DNA, and it’s welcome to stay there as
long as they can come up with music like this. God damn, it’s so exciting…
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