Black Country Communion - Afterglow 2012

Another hard rock supergroup here. Black Country Communion is like a three generations all stars musician going into jamming session. Glen Hughes and Jason Bonham of course belong to the elder generations, then Derek Sherinian in the middle and Joe Bonamassa, the million dollar guitarist, is the youngest. Afterglow is their third release. I will not brief more about the miss communication rumored between front members of this group, but just write in a listening notes for this excellent album.

The overall material is blues rock. Cry Freedom for example, a nice blues vocal duet between Joe and Glen with catchy rhythm in the background. Of more hard rock track is the starter, Big Train, Confessor and Common Man, which are going into late '70 nuances, like earlier Aerosmith mixed with Jeff Beck stuff. Guitar is dominant, riff and shred part is best sampled in The Giver. For those looking to spot Derek Sherinian stuff, he is mostly didn't participating in the solos, but more in the background. Of course Glen Hughes and Jason Bonham parts are excellent as well. The drum are fantastic in feel and also put in high technical when required to do the fill. There is also stuff that just 'heavier' in concept just like in Afterglow. For Dandelion, the song just written with Glen Hughes powerful singing approach, he claim to be in good form when tackling this album. Radio orientated song can be selected from This Is Your Time, for its easy listening chorus and groove.

Although the album seems perfect in instrumentation, the highligh is Glen's vocal as well. The vocals are well polished, with each song sounds extremely fit in, with enough improvisation, enough control of each notes. Expectation for album is high, but Afterglow is a simply prove of their music mastery. This will be album best heard in pair with Mike Portnoy's supergroup, Flying Colors.

Metalharem class: ******** eight stars out of ten

Black Country Communion - Afterglow 2012
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1. Big Train
2. This Is Your Time
3. Midnight Sun
4. Confessor
5. Cry Freedom
6. Afterglow
7. Dandelion
8. The Circle
9. Common Man
10. The Giver
11. Crawl

Glenn Hughes – vocals, bass
Joe Bonamassa – guitars, backing vocals, co-lead vocals (track 5)
Jason Bonham – drums, percussion
Derek Sherinian – keyboards