Behind most of these ‘extreme metal’ band members there is a softer side bursting to come out. Normally this occurs when they leave their long serving band or start up a side project which goes down a lighter route. There are generally two ways that they can achieve this. First is to employ the help of a lady friend as a muse and singer and wipe away all those hard edges with a band such as Unsun or Ave Inferi. The second is to form a classic rock / stoner band and let the music do the grooving and talking, some examples of this are Chrome Division and Devil’s Whorehouse. Black River as the name somewhat suggests adopts this second modus operandi and rocks out admirably. They are a Polish clan (well the label sort of gives that one away) and notable players include Orion from Behemoth and Vesaria and Daray, former Vader and live Dimmu Borgir drummer. They naturally had to find someone with a set of pipes and brought Maciek Taff from Neolithic along with that band’s guitarist Piotr "Kay" Wtulich to the party along with another guitarist Art who appears to be in no other bands. Job done.
This is actually the group’s second album following last years self titled Black River and honestly it is the sort of album that is a reviewer’s dream job, I could easily have written this review after just one listen. The music and what it does is simplicity in itself but of course I have given this a couple of enjoyable spins before sitting down to the task, simply as I have more that wanted to. These are songs about drinking, rocking and women and they start with a ‘Barf Bag’ blowing the chunks and kicking at the drunks. There is a nice solid vocal ‘whoa’ behind this and meaty instrumental ballast rocking away. The biog mentions the likes of Monster Magnet and The Cult here and I can kind of see that although as things go on there are others springing more to mind. The melody and hooks do not really get their claws in but they sure do on second number ‘Isabel’ who rings my bell with a chorus that romps away like a biker doing a ton down a clear freeway on a lovely summer day. This track is on their music player, go check it out and see for yourself!
The title track instantly got called ‘The Danzig song’ by me on first listen, that was the other influence the biog mentioned and I am not disputing that in the slightest here, the vocals are a ringer on the chorus. Another song that cannot help but stick out is ‘Jumping Queeny Flash’ which starts with the opening of Sex Pistols ‘God Save The Queen’ and bursts into The Stones ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ and guarantees you will sing along. There is naturally a bluesy feel to a lot of this and the vocals on ‘Morphine’ remind a bit of Soundgarden with the guitars sparking a deep South vibe.
These 11 songs have plenty going on and sure you are easily going to hear other points of reference listening to them. The album apparently went straight in to the Polish charts at number 20 and I am sure it would do really well where I live as there is a burgeoning Polish community. In fact I only have to pop a few doors down to the nearest shop grab some Mocne and Lech and happily rock out to this.
http://www.myspace.com/blackriverpl
