Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They deliver yet again, 20 Aug 2008
So here we are, the second offering from Southern heavy rockers, Black Stone Cherry. I like the idea they came up with for this second album - it's clever and original.
So, has the so-called 'second album syndrome' affected these guys? No, not at all. Whilst I admit, they seem to have a more mainstream feel to some of their songs - 'Soulcreek', for example, with its 'Yeah, yeah' chorus, and the more radio-friendly ballads, such as 'Things My Father Said', 'Peace Is Free' and 'You'.
But it's not all acoustic/rock ballads. Not by any means. 'Blind Man' oozes hard rock throughout, and so does 'Please Come In', which has Led Zeppelin written all over it, but with a more mainstream chorus.
'Reverend Wrinkle' is a great track and is very much a Metal track. 'Soulcreek' is the type of track which would propel BSC into the mainstream market, without fully compromising their sound. It's a great song, and Chris Robertson's vocals are spot on. 'Things My Father Said' is a very poignant track and I think it's great. The good thing about this album, and I suppose it's what makes it better than the debut in a sense that it has more variety.
Track six is 'The Bitter End', which is Metal and nothing except that. It ebbs and flows, but a great song it is. Chris Robertson's vocals are majestic, a great track. Track seven is 'Long Sleeves'. It's poignant, but again focuses on the superstitional aspect of the album. Robertson sings 'my momma said to wear long sleeves'. The track itself is Metal, without a doubt. The riffs are great.
Track eight is 'Peace Is Free' and it is aimed for the mainstream market. A great uplifting track, an anthem, if you like. This is the variety that BSC have found within this second recording. Track nine is 'Devil's Queen', and it's a great story within the song. Hard rock riffs bordering on Metal and this is great stuff to listen to. One of the better tracks on the album, if truth be told.
Track ten is 'The Key'. This one's a bit weird, with lyrics including the word 'thylacines', and a middle-eight which goes haywire and a bit messy. The riffs are inventive and fresh though, and the originality is there without question. Track eleven is another rock ballad, 'You'. The chorus is brilliant and the original acoustic riff at the beginning is excellent. Robertson sings it impeccably, even though I reckon he sounds scarily like Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), albeit a mellower one.
Track twelve is 'Sunrise', which is Metal. I think this is probably the weakest offering, as the chorus is an anti-climax. It's a good song, but it's missing that extra inspiration that the other songs have in abundance. And the final track is 'The Ghost of Floyd Collins'. I love it, it starts with someone telling the tale before the riffs kick in and Robertson sings. Brilliant track, in all honesty.
A brilliant album. You will not regret buying this, it is essential. 10/10.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Folklore and Superstition, 21 Aug 2008
After waiting so long for this album it is so great to put in my stereo, push play and feel it blast the cobwebs away. This album has the same trademark style from BSC's first album, with heavy guitars, distinctive vocals and southern style, yet you can see they have grown and deliver something different enough to show development, but not so much to alienate existing fans. The stories in 'Devils Queen' and 'Ghost of Floyd Collins' are just great and the latter track has typical chugging BSC riffs that are the perfect way to end an album. 'The Key' is great, as is 'Blind Man' and 'Peace is Free' is a good balled that sits midway in the album. This whole album oozes with down south atmosphere, from lyrical content, music style, to the album photography and packaging, these guys know their roots! I am delighted this CD is finally here and that they've delivered so much in their second album. Another storming rock album from this top band. Highly recommended.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worthy follow-up to a fantastic debut, 8 Dec 2008
Kentucky's Black Stone Cherry's debut album, released in 2006, was absolutely fantastic - a breath of southern-fried fresh air with huge riffs, powerful vocals, sizzling guitar solos and wonderful melodies and, I'm pleased to say, their second album, 'Folklore & Superstition', pretty-much continues where their debut left off, apart from, perhaps, being (only very) slightly less heavy and maybe a tad more commercially-minded - I have to say that during the insanely catchy 'Soul Creek', they drift dangerously close to Bon Jovi territory, although Bon Jovi never sounded quite as heavy as this. It may be that this album suffers a little by comparison - the debut was an extremely hard act to follow - and yet, if you had never heard of Black Stone Cherry before, this particular album could be just as good an introduction to their music as the debut.
So, who do they sound like? Well, without wanting to sound facetious, they sound like themselves. Black Stone Cherry have enough of a varied sound and mixture of styles to allow themselves never really to be pigeon-holed into sounding like a copy of any one band. I suppose, during their heavier moments, they sometimes remind me of 'Vs.'-era Pearl Jam, without the downer lyrics or vocals, of course or perhaps even the first Audioslave album ('Long Sleeves', especially). The standout tracks, for me, are the storming 'Blind Man', the radio-friendly light and shade of 'Please Come In', the heavy-riffing dark-but-melodic metal of 'Reverend Wrinkle', the adrenaline rush of 'Devil's Queen' and, perhaps the best track on the album, 'Ghost Of Floyd Collins', which could easily be an Ozzy Osbourne classic.
Other tracks such as the albeit very pleasant and touching 'Things My Father Said', the anthemic 'Peace Is Free' and the perhaps slightly formulaic 'You' do take Black Stone Cherry a little close to rock ballad cliché in musical terms, but, on balance, you would have to say that the lighter songs help to break the album up and avoid an overload of out-and-out rockers, even though it is most certainly during the heavier moments that Black Stone Cherry truly shine. Having said that, I don't want to sound overly critical, because there is nothing actually terrible on this record and this is more than a worthy follow-up to their debut. Indeed, providing they concentrate on their bluesy heavy rock sound and they are able to reproduce the magic they undoubtedly captured on their first album rather than expanding on the more commercial side they have revealed here, this is a band who could easily be a major name in hard rock in years to come.
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