Reviews roundup – Danny Bryant vs. Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith vs. Steelwings vs. Epilog vs. Hard Blue vs. Railroad
DANNY BRYANT
Means of Escape
Jazzhaus Records
Studio album number eleven from Danny Bryant. He’s come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of albums with his singing and songwriting progressing tremendously.
Glad to say this latest album continues in that vein with some of his best songs to date.
He kicks off with a tribute to his friend Walter Trout in the shape of “Tired Of Trying”. It makes a change for someone to get a tribute when they’re still around. Let’s have more of that. There is some fiery guitar work on a hard driving song before his Big Band make their first appearance on “Too Far Gone”. The album mixes up performances from both incarnations of his band and it’s a fine, slow blues.
But I’m an old metalhead at heart so it’s when he goes for the blues rock jugular that I find my place. Which means the likes of “Nine Lives” make me so damn happy. A Texas blues shuffle it would have sat happily in the hands of SRV and it doesn’t get better than that. Elsewhere there is a fair amount of introspection with a song for his late father and one for a friend who lost his daughter. Well, it is called the blues for a reason. The acoustic “Skin And Bone” is very affecting and as I still count as one of the recently bereaved it certainly struck a chord.
I love the riff on “Warning Signs (In Her Eyes)” which is as close as he comes to boogie and there is a rare slide performance on “Hurting Time”. He ends with a heartfelt instrumental called “Mya”, a song that brings a truly excellent album to a virtuoso end. An absolute treat.
KENNY “BEEDY EYES” SMITH & The House Bumpers
Drop The Hammer
Big Eye Records
I know his Dad was “Big Eyes” but I’d have lobbied heavily for a different nickname.
He’s also followed in his drumming footsteps, resulting in a large number of Blues Music Award nominations as Best Instrumentalist and was even nominated for a Grammy. He’s played with a huge number of blues bands and performers over the years including the likes of Mississippi Heat, The Cash Box Kings, Mud Morganfield, Pinetop Perkins and many more but this is his solo debut alongside his band, The House Bumpers.
So can he cut it as a singer and a songwriter? Yes-ish. He’s certainly nae singer and semi talks his way through most of the songs. But this is the blues and he’s not the first to take that approach. His background does mean that he’s been able to hit his wee black book so the musicians are all top notch with Billy Flynn, Ari Seder, Greg Guy, Nelson Strange and Guy King on guitars, Luca Chellini on keyboards, Omar Coleman and Sugar Blue on harmonica with Felton Crews on bass. They all put in a good shift with the guitar work of Ari Seder particularly noteworthy.
The songs don’t really stick, though. They’re not bad and the album makes for a good listen. I just struggle to remember them twenty minutes later. It works best when the female vocalists are high in the mix and he is a good at a slow blues when you can just build up a beat and let the whole thing hang of that. So “No Need Brotha” and the closing instrumental “Moment of Silence” are standouts.
STEELWINGS
Back
Sliptrick Records
To Sweden for some metal! Quelle surprise you might say. Which would be a bit daft in Sweden but after translation (Vilken överraskning?) would make sense. Because the Swedish do metal.
But this metal can trace its roots back to the early eighties when it was much less of a thing. I was a metalhead back then and the only Swedish band I remember are E. F. Band. And I’m sure they were only noticed because their drummer was the brother of the drummer in Girlschool. Incidentally he now calls himself Hermien Jerian-du’Fort.
Back to Steelwings. They put out a few demos as well as single and two albums before disappearing in a wave of eighties apathy. But they’re back with three original members in tow. And to be honest, any band that can out-Kiss Kiss by naming a song “My Rock Is Hot” is alright by me. That’s the opening number and it sets things up for a retro fuelled metal romp. Although can you be retro when you were there the first time?
Is it a great album? No, of course not. But it’s full of attitude and riffs and the sound of a band having a good time. That’s something you can’t underestimate as there is nothing worse than the sound of a band going through the motions. Tommy Söderström has a strong voice and the guitar work is uniformly excellent. They’ve no interest in forging new sounds sticking to eighties metal with “Rock The Nation” and “Back On The Road” particularly enjoyable. If you like old school, then you’ll like this.
EPILOG
Ancient Ritual
Epi Records
”Ancient Ritual” is the fourth album by Czech power metal band Epilog and their second with Swedish singer Rob Lundgren. They’ve also got a new rhythm section of Radek Ciprys and Jakub Novotny. Guest guitarist Martin Skoda from their last album has also stepped up to become a full member.
But some things haven’t changed with band leader Michal Zeman giving full rein to his HP Lovecraft obsession. And, to be fair, if you’re working in the world of power metal then that’s as good source material as you’re going to get. In fact it’s a wonder that every power metal band hasn’t bashed out a few tunes about the Elder Things. Although it was the description of the Shoggoth that gave the teenage me a few nightmare drenched horrors. The drugs didn’t help, mind.
So, ‘Ancient Ritual’. It’s a good one, this. Lundgren has a proper power metal voice and the best of the music (“Blood On Ice”, “Empire”, “Cthulhu’s Coming”) really is top quality It’s certainly as good as a lot of the records better known bands in the genre have been turfing out recently. I’m surprised one of the metal Euro majors haven’t been sniffing round here although I haven’t heard the earlier albums.
They’re certainly deserving of a chance and if you got them on the Euro metal festival circuit they’d pick up a lot of new fans.
https://www.facebook.com/epilogrock/
HARD BLUE
Hard Blue
Independent
To Denver, Colorado, for some old school,seventies, blues influenced rock.
They’re a new band with just over a years existence to their name. However, I would hazard guess, based on the press release, that they’ve got a fair bit of experience under their respective belts.
A traditional power trio they’re working in a similar field to the likes of Robin Trower, back in the day. And that’s a good place to be, especially when guitarist (and singer and songwriter) Shaun Skillin has such a deft touch. He really shines when they slow the pace down a bit and his guitar work on “Mercy For The Fool” is an absolute delight.
Jim Hayek and Craig DeWolf on bass and drums get on with their business in an unfussy and supportive manner which is as it should be. It’s a decent record albeit one lacking in a killer punch. “Yeah Yeah Yeah” is the best of the harder, more up tempo tunes but I can’t help thinking that, as competent a singer Skillin is, the record would have soared had they found their own Jimmy Dewar. But they don’t come by very often. Regardless, if seventies power trios get you a wee bit moist then you should definitely hunt this one down for a damn good streaming.
RAILROAD
Narration
Live Wire Records
Railroad have been on the go, in one form or another, for nigh on thirty years. And the fact that they seem to be named after a song from “Dog of Two Head” should be a monster, monster clue as to the kind of music they play.
Yes, they’re the German Status Quo! This is their fifth album and they get their heads down for some no nonsense mindless boogie right from the opening “The Night After It’s Been Said”. Fair’s fair, though. It’s not just seventies Status Quo riffs. There are a couple of seventies AC/DC riffs as well. But mainly the Quo.
Musically, they’re actually a lot better than a lot of latter day Quo seeing as how they seem to have (wisely) picked 1975 as their cut off point. Chris Hanson, drums; Arne Dieckmann, guitars and vocals and Steffen Grund, bass do a fine job of pumping out Gods Own Music with all twelve bars on display. Songs like “Rock With Me” (with the legally obligatory guitar breakdown), “Rock’n’Roll Queen” and “Railroad Boogie” had my foot tapping and my head shaking from beginning to end. Dieckmann isn’t the best singer around but you don’t need to be when you’re howling over three chords of power.
Now if only a certain band had recorded these songs instead of everything they put out in the nineties! I really, really enjoyed this.
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