Album Review

Black Stone Cherry - Between The Devil & The Deep Blue SeaBlack Stone Cherry – Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea

Now here’s a band that are absolutely freaking amazing and extremely lovable. Their brand of rock music infuses bother blues rock and southern rock over both of their previous albums. Their debut self titled album was a little bit grittier and heavier than their second album “Folklore and Superstition” took a less dirty tone and a more matured cleaner sound but not to the extent that they lost their sound. The thing about Black Stone Cherry is their music can be stuck in your head all day and sometimes for a lot longer than that. So with 2 extremely successful releases under their belt are they going to top them? Or have their idea’s all been used up?

From start to finish it would have anyone thinking either of those things. This album is a masterpiece through and through; it covers every aspect of the Cherry’s sound perfectly. You’ve got heavy songs, playful songs and some really beautiful sweet songs all in 1 album.

The first track “White Trash Millionaire” is an absolute beast; dirty riffs, heavy, catchy lyrics, it’s just got the lot. It’s like the band took the best qualities from each of their records and blended them together and throwing in a more mature approach to writing. Same goes for the song “Killing Floor” that has a heavy riff but is absolutely beautiful sounding during the chorus and really shows off Chris Robertson’s voice blending with the guitar work.

“In My Blood” has a really calm soothing feel to it; it flows through it in the form of the melody it encompasses. “Such a Shame” lyrically is emotional, and the chorus is quite reflected of the emotion shown in the song but the riff for the songs is damn quick and bouncy with some heavy palm muting making for a very special combination and continually entertaining. “All I’m Dreamin’ Of” is the ballad of the album and its wonderful, competing with “Things My Father Said” and “Peace is Free” is a difficult task but it stands its ground as one of Black Stone Cherry’s sweetest songs.

Then we have my damn favourite track of the album, “Blame it on the Boom Boom”. Absolutely fucking terrific song it’s so entertaining and playful with the musical talent to match it, however I prefer the single version released months ago as opposed to the album version. The original version’s chorus sounded perfect but they’ve added this weird riff to the album version that I really don’t like. Even so this version is still bouncy and fun like the original just feels a bit overworked compared to the first.

So there you have it, a collection of 12 top rated songs from in my opinion one of the most lovable rock bands in the world. May even be safe to say their best album to date and it’s going to be extremely difficult to top the form shown on this album. Looking forward to seeing them at Download Festival and their rumoured tour in November!

5/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Chris Robertson
Ben Wells
Jon Lawhon
John Fred Young
 Track Listing
1. White Trash Millionaire
2. Killing Floor
3. In My Blood
4. Such A Shame
5. Won’t Let Go
6. Blame It On The Boom Boom
7. Like I Roll
8. Can’t You See
9. Let Me See You Shake
10. Stay
11. Change
12. All I’m Dreamin’ Of
 Band Related Links
Black Stone Cherry Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?