BLACK STONE CHERRY - "FAMILY TREE" (2018)

BLACK STONE CHERRY - "FAMILY TREE"
(Running time: 52:54 minutes; 13 songs)
("Mascot Records"; 2018; CD):

Hey guys, yes, already the next record-review is here and now aimed at you, yes, and this sort of like again after one more too sweaty and too heated night… hot time, summer in the city, I guess… and here and now you get my record-review on the (brand)new BLACK STONE CHERRY full-length-album titled "FAMILY TREE" released still sort of pretty recently this year in 2018 via "MASCOT RECORDS" on a beautiful desgined digi-pak CD (and pretty much also on LP I would guess). I discovered them sort of just last year or two years ago or so with their phenomenal 2016 full-length-album masterpiece "KENTUCKY" and so I was more than only a bit curious when I finally got aware of that "FAMILY TREE" was released and, oh hell yeahr, that huge curiosity of me, myself, and I was far more than justified because with "FAMILY TREE" BLACK STONE CHERRY in 2018 absolutely remained on the fantastic and incredible high level of skills and qualities they have reached and conquered with "KENTUCKY" and they even enriched and varied it all even more. Compared to/with "KENTUCKY" the first impression that you get from/of "FAMILY TREE" is that it's far more colourful and that it shines in a by far more warm(er) light (at least that was my first impression) and this first impression only grows stronger when you then finally listening to it. A real monster, a true beast of an album with a very huge own identity, filled with huge and big valuable loads of nutrious fresh ideas and that's massively bubbling over with life. The Classic Rock and/or Vintage Rock influences grew very big this time and are massively enriched with very strong (also sometimes tribalistic arranged) Soul marks and cultivated with very strong and damn cool and very present Gospel inspired (or so it seems to me) passages that give the songs and the whole album not only a very special and damn own and unique character and identity but also a pretty different and with that also a very colourful and soulful timbre and all is melted together by phenomenal songwriting full of exciting twists and turns and filled with tons of ironclad-like grapping moments and filled with very diverse arrangements and an in general highly multi-layered and multi-facetted compositorial approach of writing and delivering songs with a very 'rousing mind-set' and filled to the maximum with high octane energy and marked by very strong and alive-lively dynamics as well as the incredible huge ability to write and create with each and every song a through'n'through damn hymn and each as exciting, grapping, rousing, touching, and interesting as the other, oh boy, fantastic, and all done'n'delivered by masterly skilled musicians (as well as songwriters). All is marked by highly charismatic lead vocals, highly diverse and really bright and loud singing guitars, a warm and yet perwful and loud walkin'n'talkin' bass, really powerful punching drumming, and all is enriched by very intense and atmospheric backing choirs and brilliant keyboard and organ parts, various horns, and a breath-taking percussion section. It's just absolutely larger than life and damn groundbreaking and just a damn rich and a highly diverse total masterpiece of an album, one of the strongest of and in and for 2018 for sure, with a totally unique character so that any band comparisions are at the end of the day sort of nonsense, yes, but if you really need some other names then you can loosely find BLACK STONE CHERRY's "FAMILY TREE"  standing on a very independently position somewhere between LYNYRD SKYNYRD, the BLUES PILLS, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, and BRAND NEW SIN as well as we all probably won't get an album like "FAMILY TREE" that soon again with bringing Alterantive/Modern Rock and Classic/Vintage Rock so perfectly and easy flowing together so that fans of for example NICKELBACK will love it as well as also fans of for example LED ZEPPELIN will also love it anyhow, too. Nothing but an incredible fantastic and an absoultely outstanding album, an amazing one, yes, that's it what BLACK STONE CHERRY's "FAMILY TREE" is and all is then at the end of the day made round by great lyrics, a gorgeous artwork, and a perfect warm and earthy production-sound. This is 'highliest' recommended to any fan of true and real and just amazing and outstanding Rock/Rock &  Roll music outta there and if you are in that target-group you should know what you have to do by now and right now, point and fact.

(10 of 10 points)

http://www.blackstonecherry.com/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

BLACK STONE CHERRY - "SOUTHERN FRIED FRIDAY NIGHT" (2018, "FAMILY TREE")

STRYPER - "GOD DAMN EVIL" (2018)

STRYPER - "GOD DAMN EVIL"
(Runninmg time: 44:40 minutes; 11 songs)
("Frontiers Records"; 2018; CD):

Yes, all you dirty and filthy sinners repent because judgement day is finally one more time again here and judgement aims its blood dripping spear at you while silver shining swords cutting off your heads and in golden shields the last you see is the reflection of your painfilled face screaming out loud in silent anger and misery… okay, maybe this all lead me a bit too far… ahm... okay, in other words: The mighty STRYPER are back in 2018 with their newest full-length-album "GOD DAMN EVIL" released still more or less pretty recently in 2018 via "FRONTIERS RECORDS" (on CD, but probably also on LP). STRYPER, the grandfathers of Christian (Hard) Rock (or so to say), have sort of always been a guilty pleasure of me, myself, and I (even without being a Christian myself) and so I was pretty excited when I finally saw STRYPER's "GOD DAMN EVIL" in my local media store and this even more after it sort of came out of nowhere for me. Ah, and btw, anyone who really (still) ticks out'n'off because of their religious agenda just stop reading, no problem, anyone else go ahead: For all what I would say STRYPER are (much) harder and definitely a bit more modern up here on and with "GOD DAMN EVIL" working with more stunning Heavy Metal marks to enrich their Hard Rock/Heavy Rock quite a bit and also they manage to work a bunch of more groovy and modern rhythm arrangements and structures into their songs with a stronger focus on tension-building rhythmic accentuations to bulk up their anthemic and melodic yet heavy hitting and stomping Hard Rock quite a bit and this in a pretty stunning and massive way. Best example surely is the opener "TAKE IT TO THE CROSS", a fantastic song, harsh and groovy thrashing Metal that will please any fan of bands from PANTERA over DAMAGEPLAN to SHADOWS FALL and that showcases even some few Death Metal grunts (as backings, so to say), surely one of the if not the heaviest songs STRYPER ever did to date. But also massively heavy and stunning songs like "GOD DAMN EVIL" (even being totally fist pumping hymnal STRYPER-esque Hard Rock par excellence), "THE VALLEY", "OWN UP", and "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME" (brilliant composed refrain, just btw) are prime examples for STRYPER going more heavy and modern in 2018 then even before, yes, and are also absolutely first class songs. I go even so far and say that I would have wished that STYRPER would have taken this even a bit further, yes, but maybe that's just me, who knows. But calm down, because STYPER still know how to do and deliver absolutely top notch melodic (and again and again pretty much all the time also nicely metallic) Hard Rock here and there maybe slightly also flirting with some AOR and that's marked by very strong songwriting full of rousing dynamics and energy and grapping moments from start to finish and that's all the time very nicely multi-facetted and so offers a lot to discover, and that's filled to the exploding maximum with fantastic guitar playing that delivers majestic riffing and rhythm works as well as and especially top notch leads and goosepimple-giving solos, amazing and gorgeous and highly charismatic vocals, and a massive stunning rhythm section consisting (out) of a great and really walking'n'talking bass and thundering drumming and all full of sheer power and full force, and also some nice backings and some few atmospheric organ moments we get on top of it all, yes, and all done on a very high level of quality by truly high skilled musicians (and songwriters). My personal favorites would be or surely are "TAKE IT TO THE CROSS", "GOD DAMN EVIL", "YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW ME", "THE VALLEY", "SEA OF THIEVES", "OWN UP" and "THE DEVIL DOESN'T LIVE HERE", yes, so maybe check this heavyweight gems out first. Some good and surprisingly pretty subtle lyrics, a gorgeous artwork, and a very heavy production-sound (I would just wish that the sound would be a bit more cleaner and clearer, but maybe that's just my personal taste, again: who knows) finally round STRYPER's "GOD DAMN EVIL" up and this in a pretty good way. Yes, all in all a very nice and welcomed breath of fresh air and a damn strong album that I can calmly and clearly recommend to anyone into Hard Rock (and Heavy Metal as well).

(8,5 of 10 points)

http://www.stryper.com/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

STYRPER - "TAKE IT TO THE CROSS" (2018, "GOD DAMN EVIL")

BLACK STONE CHERRY - "KENTUCKY" (2016)

BLACK STONE CHERRY - "KENTUCKY"
(Running time: 52:37 minutes; 13 songs)
("Mascot Records"; 2016; CD + DVD):

Hey guys, here we go again, (relatively) late night, (relatively) late post, first saturday post (we will see if more will follow later today), and also first November post in general. And after the last posts were sort of 'exclusively' reviews on 2017 releases, yes, I now felt like doing finally again a review on an already a little bit older album, yes, and so now here comes my review on the 2016 absolutely masterpiece album titled "KENTUCKY" that the almighty BLACK STONE CHERRY delivered to us last year. Before "KENTUCKY" BLACK STONE CHERRY were somehow pretty to totally unknown to me... shame on me... and then they came and conquered and they conquered in an incredible supreme and absolutely overwhelming way with their absolutely brilliant and just fantastic hard and heavy, massively grooving and powerful-punching, yet very hymnal and melodic, play- and soulful, anthemic and catchy, and all the time very intense and atmospheric and also filled with emotions to the max damn honest, authentic, fresh, suprising, grapping, and sympathic surely real Rock music somehwere between definitely by Blues and also even Soul and Gospel as well as Country influenced and inspired Hard'n'Heavy Rock & Roll, strong deep down dirty Southern Rock, and strong fresh Modern'n'Alternative Rock marks and impressions; maybe to be best located on a very stand-alone position somewhere between BRAND NEW SIN on the one side, PUDDLE OF MUDD on the other, NICKELBACK on the next, and LYNYRD SKYNYRD on the final side, and a bit BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN floating around somewhere in the middle of it all, and if/when you throw some LED ZEPPELIN and some AC/DC and here and there some few GUNS'N'ROSES as well as some few ALTER BRIDGE in the mix, hell yeahr, and then (definitely) keep in mind that BLACK STONE CHERRY play their very own style of (Hard) Rock music, yes, then you will have a pretty good starting point of what to expect what a monster they what means BLACK STONE CHERRY have unleashed on us all with this masterpiece named "KENTUCKY". And, btw, I don't know for sure if 'Christian Rock' is here and now a or the proper term to describe BLACK STONE CHERRY properly, hm, maybe not, but for all what I got BLACK STONE CHERRY, rocking from out of the so called 'Bible Belt', are a very open religious (christian) band and for me that's all good and fine - so if you have a problem with it then maybe check your head one or two times or as many times as needed, yes, because then the Problem maybe 'simply' lies within you. Okay, back to the topic: Expect an incredible and totally asskicking and boneshaking, heavy and forceful and yet very, very melodic and symphonic, really singing and bright shining, very unique and characteristic, highly diverse and all the time multi-layered guitar work (no matter if we take the riffs and rhythms or the leads and solos, it's all just really larger-than-life), backed up by a diverse and precise, asstight and just beauitfully composed and arranged rhythm section,and above all really fantastic full and powerful lead vocals with a strong own flavour and identity, oh yes, and all is massively enriched with various backround choirs and singing(s) and various diverse different other instruments, flowing and melting all perfectly together. And, yes, this is really perfect. So, yes, then all is melted together and made whole by absolutely rousing, grapping, exciting, diverse, and also pretty self-contained songwriting. And that this guys are very skilled musicians I do only mention here and now for 'reasons of completness'. The whole "KENTUCKY" album is completly filled with just pure platinum hits, from start to finish, but if you want to know my absolute favorites then currently I would name you "LONG RIDE", "THE RAMBLER", "SHAKIN' MY CAGE", "IN OUR DREAMS", "THE WAY OF THE FUTURE", the damn great covertune "WAR", "CHEAPER TO DRINK ALONE", and "DARKEST SECRET". But the (anyhow only few) not mentioned songs are also purest gold and platinum, so at the end of the day it really doesn't matter what song(s) you pick they all 'simply' totally rule. So, yes, I can only recommend this absolutely amazing and fantastic album and if you still don't know it, why the damn bloody hell ever, then make finally sure to change this and go out and get this masterpiece of an album as soon as possible.
(10 of 10 points)
http://www.blackstonecherry.com/ (-the link to the homepage of the band)

BLACK STONE CHERRY - "LONG RIDE" (2016, "KENTUCKY")