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It’s not
that often nowadays that a band churns up a storm on the rock world but
when legends in rock like Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Chad Smith and
Michael Anthony come together for a band the world has to sit up and
take notice. This quartet have come together under the Chickenfoot
banner and with their debut album have set out putting Hard Rock back on
the map.
This debut album has caused such a buzz and the band equally so, so much
that their debut tour totally sold out. So the album must be a
corker. Well it must because I bought it simply to review it, not
a thing I do often so was it worth the price? Well believe me the
boys rock big style.
Opening up with ‘Avenida Revolution’ the quartet have struck pure
Hard Rock gold and the combination of the four has developed that rarest
of things in a band, their own sound. Hagar shows why he has been
one of my favourite vocalist's for years, even before Van Halen and ever
since his Montrose days and his Red Rocker solo days, the guy has always
had a powerhouse vocal and this album is no different. With a
thumping rhythm section as mighty as Smith and Anthony, they keep the
band pumping out the rock n' roll gasoline, whilst Satriani just oozes
out those bluesy rock riffs like only he can.
Well that was the opener, what about the rest of the album you may ask.
Well it just gets better and better as each track unfolds. The album is
a joy to listen to as it continues with the funk ridden ‘Soap On A
Road’ and one of my favourites off the album the excellent ‘Sexy
Little Thing’, with Satriani laying down some great licks on this one,
with that solid as a rock back beat the perfect sound board for
Hagar’s vocals. As songs go they don’t get much better than
this.
The album continues its groove filled feel with ‘Oh Yeah’, a heavy
bass line by Anthony keeps the heavy groove going. Then it's
Satriani’s turn to lay down the grooves on ‘Running Out’, before
the pace is picked up with the heavy vibes of ‘Get It Up’, a real
top notch rocker that really shows the band have gone for diversity and
quality on this album. The pace of things slows down with the
classic rock feel with a modern twist of ‘Down The Drain’, a track
that I think a modern Led Zep would be doing now, big thick soulful
sounds that just oozes class.
The class of the musicians involved with the band, because that's what
Chickenfoot are a band not a one off project, but a kickin’ rock n'
roll band, continue to punch out the future classics with ‘My Kinda
Girl’ and the gentle tones of ‘Learning To Fall'. But it's the
groove filled 'Turnin’ Left’ and the fantastic closer ‘Future In
The Past’ that really shine for me. Two very different tracks,
one a mid-tempo rocker ‘Turning Left’ and the other Future In The
Past’, a real funky rocker.
This album should be on everyone’s list of albums to buy because rock
this good deserves to be played on hi-fi’s, iPods, car stereos and any
other media you can think of loud and proud, to show the world of pop
and made to measure TV bands that rock is still the most powerful music
around and won’t die no matter how hard they try.
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