As I was leaving a Steve Vai concert last week, I overheard a guy talking with his friend about a rock group featuring Joe Bonamassa and “Bonham’s kid.” I stopped dead in my tracks and asked, “Are you talking about Black Country Communion?” He replied, “I sure was, we were trying to remember the guy’s name from Deep Purple and the other guy.” I went on to say “The guy from Deep Purple is Glenn Hughes, I interviewed him once and he’s pretty amazing. The other one is from Dream Theatre, Derek Sherinian.”
The conversation inevitably led to my just having received an advance copy of “Afterglow,” the band’s latest offering slated for release at the end of October. At that point, I had listened to the album three times trying to digest it.
“Afterglow” is the band’s third studio album in slightly over two years. While you might think that doesn’t give the band much time to change, Black Country Communion sounds tighter than ever on “Afterglow,” and it is the most melodic of the bands three albums, not as dark as “2” and not as in your face as their debut album.
On the first run through, my favorite track was “Cry Freedom,” which features Joe Bonamassa and Glenn Hughes trading vocal lines. Again, Hughes’ vocal performance is magnificent throughout the album but when he and Joe sing together, it is just plain magical.
The title cut “Afterglow” is the song that reminds me the most of Led Zeppelin. It features what may be one of Glenn Hughe’s best vocal performances ever in his storied career. He switches seamlessly from this melodic singer into his throat tearing screams. Throughout the album, Hughes sounds like three or four different singers, you really have to listen close to realize it’s the same guy.
Another thing that separates this album from its predecessors are the performances from Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian. Bonham’s drums are up in the mix and at times, sound like a heard of rhinos on speed and yet conversely, he knows just when to lay down a nice groove.
I have always thought that Sherinian’s keyboards were a subtle layer in the band’s sound, but on “Afterglow,” we really get a solid dose of them throughout, including some great work on “Common Man” where his Deep Purple style keyboard in one part of the song and Stevie Wonder style playing at the end really makes the song.
Is this the best album they have recorded to date? I have to say yes because it is so balanced and even though there is a lot going on, the album never overwhelms the listener. If this album came out twenty years ago, it would easily be on everyone’s top albums of all time lists. But don’t interpret that as meaning the album sounds dated, it sounds as fresh and exciting as anything out there.
I will close by saying there have been reports that BCC’s future is in question. With what they have produced so far, I hope that isn’t the case because BCC doesn’t sound like some supergroup thrown together for a quick run, these guys sound like they were born to play together for a long time!
