Artist: Firebird
Title: Double Diamond
Type: Album
Label: Rise Above Records

It’s a new decade, and for Bill Steer’s blues power trio firebird, a new album and seemingly inevitably, a new line up. With this new album, and a history that now stretches over a 6 albums, and over ten years, how has the music changed, and can it match up to their other releases? Their superlative last CD, ‘Grand Union’ was an unmatched slice of British “white boy blues”, highlighted by Mr Steer’s guitar mastery, and rounded off by the massive Zeppelinesque ‘Caledonia’, and is a hell of an album to follow. Does ‘Double Diamond’ live up to its predecessor? Damn right it does!

Opener ‘Soul Saviour’ kicks off with some classic bluesy riffing, but progresses into a rockier realm, the chugging guitar riffs and occasional overlaying of the solos sounding more like Thin Lizzy then pure blues. Hey, if a band’s going to have influences, why not pick the greats? This harder, rockier edge permeates ‘Ruined’ and ‘Bright Lights’, snatches of the delivery of Bad Company coming through, not just in the composition, but also the production, a sound that retains that warmer, less polished to death seventies sound that is so often absent in modern songs that have been broken down into digitised sound waves and reassembled byte by byte. ‘Double Diamond’ sounds like it was played by musicians, not assembled by an engineer, musicians who would have no problems recreating the same sound live.

‘For Crying Out Loud’ and ‘A Wing And A Prayer’ have the hallmarks of being future rock classics, the latter being a homage to the low level, unglamorous side of rock touring, encompassing in under three minutes the passion that keeps so many bands playing for no more reward then they joy of playing, a case of cheap beer, and snatched naps on borrowed sofas. On ‘Arabesque’ the Led Zep sound is enhanced by Ludwig Witt’s Bonham sounding beats, with hints of ‘Kashmir’ wafting through in a haze of patchouli scented joss sticks.

‘Double Diamond’ is a natural progression for Firebird, encompassing as it does a wider range of classic influences. As ever the lesson in guitar mastery is the highlight of the album; whether he’s strumming an acoustic, playing bottle neck blues, or firing out classic rock riffs, the skill on show is unmatched. Unlike so many guitar virtuosos who dazzle with skill and speed and forget feeling, Bill Steer invests emotion into everything he plays, provoking an instinctive response, rather then dazzling with technique. What’s more, Firebird is a band that produces the goods live too, as they have proven time and again. If you’ve not discovered them yet, let 2011 be the year you treat yourself to some of the best British hard rock around.

http://www.myspace.com/firebirdpage