Artist: Black Sonic
Title: 7 Deadly Sins
Type: Album
Label: Artist Station/Soulfood Music
Firstly let me say if you are the sort of metal fan who insists lyrics are meant to be growled or grunted, and any bands who don’t wear corpse paint are false, and if you’re not willing to be persuaded otherwise, click to another link now; Black Sonic are not for you. Indeed, if categorization is a necessity, it would be fairer to put this Lichtenstein four piece act solidly in the category of hard rock, nestling alongside the likes of Velvet Revolver, with occasional nods to the lighter commerciality of Nickelback. I reckon they are two bands that few regular readers of MTUK would expect to be referenced, let alone in terms of a favourable comparison.
Opener, ‘Back’ starts with a slight hint of Down style riffing, before chilling into a simple, but well structured rock number, competently played, with catchy, nod along guitar hooks. This same hard rock drive punches through ‘Down the Drain’ and ‘Dare to Fail,’ before ‘Some;’ the sort of angst laden rock ballad that often finds itself in the US charts, with the psychedelic echo of the guitars giving the track a slight edge to make it stand out from the crowd. Likewise, title track ‘7 Deadly Sins’ manages to combine a lighter start with harmonised vocals before the guitars turn up the “rawk” a notch. Throughout the album, Black Sonic show the ability to write catchy, melodic rock numbers that sound guaranteed to appeal to the American market. It’s a shame, therefore, that they throw in ‘Ordinary World’, an uninspired and uninspiring cover of an old Duran Duran number of all things. This inclusion takes away from the writing chops the band display in their own material and in my opinion takes away from their own work.
The fact that out of the 30,000 residents of the tiny Principality of Lichtenstein, the four members of Black Sonic have come together to form such a competent rock act, playing together tightly, and managing to get their album and live show in front of an international audience is to be commended.
http://www.bsp.li
http://www.myspace.com/blacksonicmusic
