Black Country Communion – "V"

"Vee have vays of raacking your face off, jaa?"

Ever experienced how sometimes you know something, but then you forget it again because it's not relevant to you? Yeah, I'm kinda ashamed of saying this, but I might at some point have known that Black Country Communion had released a fourth album since their reunion. If I did, I'd totally sweat that fact out only to (re-)discover it when researching for this review. To be fair, though, me moving to Málaga and then that whole COVID shitshow kinda got in the way of them touring to an extent where it was possible for me to catch them on the road. Hopefully, their fifth studio album, cleverly titled "V", will rectify this.

Hopefully, because if you've never heard about BCC, this is one of those supergroups that put the "super" in the word "supergroup". Consisting of walking legend, bassist, and sense-defying hard rock vocalist Glenn Hughes, renowned blues solo guitarist Joe Bonamassa, John goddamn Bonham junior Jason Bonham, and former Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherininan, BCC sound as awesome on their albums as they do on paper. And they've just gone and proved that again.

Opener "Enlighten" embodies virtually everything that's great about this band and, at the same time, showcases an element of contrast that's prevalent on this album: It starts off by kicking everyone's ass with a phallically hard and stiff start/stop-riff, but then segues into a vast, open verse, Hughes' clear, longing vocals carefully tiptoeing across Sherininan's mysteriously dreamy soundscape. It sounds like a modern-day Zeppelin, but with those extra 45 years of experience, the keyboard reflecting the gigantic sounds to come in the years post-Bonham senior.

Something that's almost as impressive as that all-decisive, magnificent songwriting is how easy this merry band of heavyweights is making it sound.

When I say that the opener embodies virtually everything that's great about BCC, it's because its follow-up, lead single "Stay Free", broadens the band's display of creative tools and goes off in an entirely different direction, a teasingly sexy funk rock riff dancing suggestively with an equal parts simple and impudent Hammond octave on top of the most shameless rock #1 beat since the first AC/DC album. In all its simplicity, this is jaw-droppingly effective, sounding like one of the best songs from that Mark III era of Deep Purple that put Hughes on the world map.

Shit, I could keep on writing an entire paragraph about every goddamn song here, so I'm just gonna do it one more time. Because that Tom Morello-style concrete riff in "Red Sun" is as impressively heavy as the chorus' Jimmy Page-style harmonies are enormous. And that aforementioned element of contrast is never any more visible than when an even heavier variation of the main riff clears the way for a melancholic, arpeggiated minor cadence. Goddammit, you think all the good songs have been written already, and then these guys show up.

The pure, slow minor-key blues of "Restless" is based on a descending bass figure which, while often in danger of being too dominant, avoids that pitfall under these circumstances. Its chorus sees Hughes delivering the album's possibly most powerful vocal performance – which is saying a lot. And just like this one tune stands in contrast to the ones before it, the same thing goes for the spacy cadence and beautiful vocal harmonies of "Letting Go", its melody curiously reminding me of Foo Fighters in their heyday, and, again, standing in an equal parts stark and perfect contrast to that phallically hard verse riff. And yes, I just used the word "phallically" twice in the same review. Actually, three times if you count that last one also. Holy shit, I rock.

Goddammit, you think all the good songs have been written already, and then these guys show up.

... Okay, so admittedly, I couldn't write a paragraph about every single song here. Like many other albums – good albums, even – this is one of those albums that gets a bit less interesting past midway. While "You're Not Alone" is driven by a powerfully heavy legato blues riff, and "Love and Faith" by a gigantic, Dorian Zeppelin riff, those riffs remain the dominant elements while the rest of the songs are largely forgettable. Granted, while I do live by that parole of "The power of the riff compels me" that Down pressed on their t-shirts (to name another supergroup worthy of that label), a riff in itself was never enough to carry an entire song. At this point, we've kinda heard it all before. Doesn't mean it's bad by any stretch, but less inspired.

It might also be interesting to hear some more of the individual band members transcending their roles a bit. While Bonamassa does deliver some wicked axe chops, (as if anyone had any doubt at this point), his solos do tend to drown a bit in too much reverb. Apart from the opening tracks, Sherininan mostly stays in the background. And Bonzo Jr., while doing all the right things at the right times and being just as tight as his dad, is still not as creative or innovative. (Which, to be fair, is a brutal comparison.)

So, while there might not be any future classic rock radio staples here, this is still outstanding craftsmanship. Equal parts felt and focused, when "V" is at its peaks, it flows as naturally as unhindered creativity itself. And while "V" might not work as well as an entirety as it could've, when its individual songs work, they're near untouchable. And something that's almost as impressive as that all-decisive, magnificent songwriting is how easy this merry band of heavyweights is making it sound. And compared to all too much digitized garbage music these days, it sounds fucking real, too – not like a bunch of sterile, plugin-homogenized copy/pasting, but like actual human beings playing actual musical instruments in an actual goddamn rehearsal room with carpets, coffee mugs, and warm tube amplifiers.

Rating: 4.5 out of 6

Genre: Hard rock
Release date: 14/6/2024
Label: J&R Adventures
Producer: Kevin Shirley