Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Sea [Special Edition, Extra tracks]

"Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" the third studio album from Kentucky rockers Black Stone Cherry is possibly their strongest collection of songs yet, fuelled with heavy guitar riffs, melodic rhythms and in places some very poignant lyrics.

Working with renowned rock producer Howard Benson, Black Stone Cherry stay true to their traditional southern sound, opening track and lead single "White Trash Millionaire" is a decent opener, but perhaps not for me as strong as previous singles from their first two albums.
Elsewhere, melodic uptempo rockers "Killing Floor" and "Such A Shame" follow in a similar vein, before the fantastic "Blame It On The Boom Boom" shows up at track six, without doubt one the catchiest songs the band has written and should easily be the albums second single.

There's the traditional ballads to boot, a couple of mid-tempo ones in tracks "In My Blood" and "Won't Let Go," but the strongest and most emotional song is "Stay," you'll get the idea with lyrics like "I'd sell my soul just to see your face and I'd break my bones just to heal your pain."

The album closes with the acoustic filled "All I'm Dreamin Of," it almost moves with a slight country twang, a slower song with again some heartfelt lyrics.
If you've brought the deluxe version though you'll get three extra tracks, heavy rocker "Staring St The Mirror" ballad "Fade Away" and one final rocker "Die For You." Although all decent tracks in their own right, nothing strong enough in my opinion to place ahead of the twelve albums tracks.

In summary, "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" is an excellent record, full of heavy southern rock with lyrics about the ups and downs of everyday life, it's a record that any rock fan should enjoy.
It's quite short though, most of the tracks just about creep over the three minute mark, no track here comes close to touching five minutes - but I'll take quality over quantity any day.

The phrase "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" means an undesirable dilemma, which isn't something you should apply to this record. Dilemma over, without doubt it comes highly recommended.

Best Tracks "Stay," "Blame It On The Boom Boom" "Such A Shame"

I was very excited when I heard that Black Stone Cherry had released a new album and bought it as soon as I could. Having bought the first two albums (and loved them both) I was expecting more of the same - blues tinted heavy rock that is in your face and offers no apologies, foot stomping hard rock fun!

Unfortunately, having listened to this album a good 4-5 times I find that BSC have lost their edge. I remember a few years back I was discussing BSC with a friend and they said that BSC sound 'way too much like Nickelback' which I thought was preposterous at the time, however this album reminds of Nickleback more every time I listen to it. It is radio friendly 'make me lots of money' rock which just doesn't appeal to me. None of the songs get anywhere near the hard rock greatness achieved on their first two efforts; it reeks of an album that was written with the aim of getting mass radio airplay. Nothing wrong with that in essence, the guys gotta make a buck, but it is not my kind of music.

I bought the special edition with 15 tracks but unfortunately none of the songs really grabbed my attention. White Trash Millionaire, the album's opening song, had the same feel as 'Rockstar' by Nickelback, or something Kid Rock would have penned, whereas the lyrics in 'Blame it on the Boom Boom' reminded me of Metallica's Frantic in how disappointed I was with the simplicity of the lyrics (All together now "When I'm giving you the boom boom/Yeah don't wake up in the morning/In somebody else's room room/Blame it on the boom boom" - sounds more like a Britney song).

The songwriting is predictable and the lyrics are, well, basic at best. There don't seem to be the intricacies of previous albums or the lyrical excellence that I enjoyed before. Overall this is an album that will appeal to many people, but I am not one of them. It is a shame really and I hope they will be back to proper hard rock on their next effort.

Yet another good loud album from BSC. Worth buying. Shipping fast. Great Band, so if you haven't heard of them before buy this album you will not be disappointed