Not long before the debut album from Black Water Redemption landed in my lap, I had come across an old Black Star Riders ticket stub from a gig in Dublin in 2013. Opening that night was an engrossing Southern rock outfit from Southampton called Western Sand. It only clicked with me there and then that they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Black Water Redemption
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Brian Boyle
Well, lo and behold, when browsing through this album’s press release, serendipity struck. I miraculously discovered that a couple of members have resurrected themselves as Black Water Redemption, who are going into battle once again with a self-titled debut album.
Having had a bit of previous, I could not help but have a high degree of expectation before the first spin. And with this being a debut album, kicking off with filler fodder was never an option.
Although far from an open-mouthed Welcome To The Jungle moment, Stand For Something is bold enough to whet your appetite. But then things get interesting, as Praying For The Sun announces itself like an outlaw kicking a saloon door wide open.
Vocalist Adam Chambers immediately marks his territory and fires up a towering anthem full of power and purpose.
A word of warning, though. If you thought guitarist Tyler Hains and bassist Dan de Vries were just going to pick up where they left off with the Southern bite of Western Sand, then think again. This is a much bigger and bolder operation, bulging with big kahuna attitude. You get things like the confrontational I Gave It All peppering out riffs and melodies all over the place.
Lighting Strikes has the same threat about it, even if you have heard the chorus a million times before.
At eight songs and 34 minutes long, there is room for a ballad, and a fine one at that. And you have to say hats off to the lads for not going for the glory on the piano-led Fly Like The Crow. This song never changes gear and triumphs in its restraint.
Then it is time to batten down the hatches again, with some meat-and-potatoes Metal on the self-explanatory Ride Or Die and All Guns Blazing.
It is hard to deny there is a very formulaic sound to them, but they are not trying to reinvent the wheel. These songs are direct and defiant and very much a case of take us as you find us.
They sign off with another ballad. However, this time it’s designed to leave a right dent in you, and that it does. This is Wanted Dead Or Alive on steroids, with Hains virtuosity a real highlight.
Hains and de Vries, along with hugely impressive singer Adam Chambers and powerhouse drummer Chris Allen, have a good thing going here, and by the sounds of it, I suspect there is even better to come.
You can find out more about Black Water Redemption at linktr.ee/blackwaterredemption.
