V is an outstanding 51 minutes of refreshing Hard Rock music by the returning Black Country Communion. It’s the album many hoped they would make, and these paragons of rock have over delivered on these wishes. Far from their heavy feet sinking in sludgy mud whilst their eyes are locked on an impossible horizon, V is an album in which every element flies and falls beautifully into place. Each song demands inclusion. The compositional excellence is backed up by the virtuoso musicianship that serves each track and, rest assured, Glenn Hughes interprets them all in his still remarkably fine-tuned voice.
The breadth of rock stylings from the early warning of momentous opener Enlighten, and first single funky keyboard rock stomper Stay Free, detail a sharp alert for the sonic treasures to come. The astutely conceived sublime rock epic Red Sun could be this album’s standout track, then again… nevertheless, it sets up the barnstorming blues rock of Restless in which Bonamassa plays some of his finest blues guitar licks, whilst Hughes emotively displays his range of moans.
There are also gritty riffs aplenty as evidenced on the tight but loose Letting Go with its contrasting melodic verse. Skyway equally pursues bringing together similar sonic molecules where Bonham and Hughes lock in step and Bonamassa and Sherinian double riff. Satisfyingly, there are also deep and dirty rock motifs where Love And Trust hits a sweet spot like a classic rock juggernaut in which all players have individual cameos within its glorious whole. Wearing their influences on their re-fashioned sleeves, the deceptive gospel-tinged Hammond Organ intro to You’re Not Alone is overwhelmed by a heavyweight guitar/keyboard riff. Again, it heralds in Hughes’ voice of rock credentials. Put together, and like the entire album, it covers familiar songwriting territory, but the music possesses an extraordinary different and stimulating aspect to it redefining what Hard Rock means.
Not confined to one rock styling, the AOR melodic soundscape on the intro to Too Far Gone, mashed up with another gritty verse driven riff and middle eight breakdown with solos, is a reminder of the fertile compositional approach these four musical missionaries convert into ready-made Hard Rock classics. Furthermore, the infectious funky blues motif on final track The Open Road, (in which Bonamassa channels a devout homage to Kossoff) with its Free inspired Mr Big breakdown, is pure class. To summarise, aided by Kevin Shirley’s lean production, virtuoso foursome Bonamassa, Bonham, Hughes and Sherinian have delivered a near perfect album of Hard Rock. V dispenses with the overcooked cliches and bear-trap tropes that dog many an album attempting to achieve the status of this artfully powerful and engrossing recording.
Review by Paul Davies
