Whitesnake

It is a season of comebacks and very successful ones at that. So after almost a decade one of the most successful hair metal bands of the Eighties, Whitesnake unleash their tenth studio album, on a generation that wasn’t even born in the Eighties, or for that matter the generation that does remember them are probably too wrapped up in their own mid-life chaos to really bother. Well apparently generations bothered enough to make it a top 10 album in at least 15 countries worldwide. So David Coverdale is back with trademark vocals, with a new veteran line up in the form of Doug Aldrich (Dio, House of Lords) and Reb Beach (Winger, Dokken) on guitars, along with session musicians, Uriah Duffy, Timothy Dury and Chris Frazier on Bass, keyboards and Drums respectively. This is classic Whitesnake, an amalgamation of their eponymous 1987 album and the 1989 Steve Vai–influenced album Slip of the Tongue, with a little bit of 1992’s Coverdale/Page thrown in. Almost all of the songs are a throwback in some way or the other to various songs on the aforementioned albums, ”˜All I want’ has shades of ”˜Deeper the love’, ”˜Good to be Bad’ has nuances of the Coverdale/Page song ”˜Shake My Tree’, ”˜Lay down your Love’ has its Zeppelin homages in place as well. So all in all a welcome return of a sound as powerful as we remember it and with musicality as tight as ever, guitars are sublimely scorching, the drums well processed, and Mr Coverdale’s ageless vocal range is in fine form. Very hard, very heavy yet and smooth in its execution – a must for the fans and for those who want to discover a time of rock n roll innocence, if there is such a thing.  Standout tracks include ”˜Best Years,’ ”˜All I want, all I need’ and ”˜Good to be bad.’