BlackRain
Released
UDR Music
2016
I remember having and then selling one of BlackRain’s previous four albums in the past, which I got cheap and because I though the cover was interesting… I think it was “License to Thrill”…? but then selling it, because it didn’t really do much for me. The French “hardcore” not-so-stars have now been around for a decade and despite this, their fifth effort and debut under UDR music being probably their most focused and best produced, they seem to have filtered out any sense of “attitude” in order to achiev, musicality and while that’s commendable the genre of hard/sleazy rock needs a very volatile balance of chops and attitude to really work… you need to feel like the whole thing is “edgy” and “streetwise” and “real” and BlackRain may have upped their game on certain aspects, but have actually lost a lot of the spontaneity in the process…
The production is handled by Jack Douglas, famous for his collaborations with Aerosmith, Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick among others, so that explains the good production, but the problem is that the vocals and the guitar seem to have some issues. The vocalist doesn’t have any real “grit”, which would really make these songs take flight, while the guitars on several songs of the album sound quite “thin” and brittle over some pretty plastic drumming with cymbal work quite out of focus… it’s not bad-bad, but when using a producer that’s so renowned, I’d expect an explosive – near perfect result, not this “good”/polished, but ultimately weak output… I’m guessing to go for that “Crue” sounds these days you’d be better off with some “Swedish” production dude, than anyone else…
“Back in Town” isn’t quite back – it’s also the “single”, but it suffers from all those issues, it feels too “controlled” and not as raw as it should…
In that respect “Mind Control” is more “like it” with the band upping their game on every level, a bit of fake grit on the vox that however works and a nice enough chorus…
The melody at the beginning of “Killing Me” lamely apes the Anastacia tune “Left Outside Alone”… but the guys put some effort in... that half saves the tune from being completely dismissible…
“Run Tiger Run” could have been quite excellent and it has a nice semi-acoustic chorus, but doesn’t get its verses as perfectly…
“Puppet on a String” turns up the sleaze factor, but while it apes Motley at their best, almost perfectly, it’s almost utterly forgettable…
“Words Ain’t Enough” is a decent semi ballad, just a bit too quick to be considered a proper one… almost like having 45rpm’ed a 33 record… I’m pretty sure that a more laid-back tempo might have worked better on this one…
Julis Fucik’s “Entry of the Gladiator’s” the most recognizable, “circus” theme heralds “Eat You Alive”, a sort of sing-along attempt to create an anthem, but the band seems to reference it far too often… so it’s more of a fluke than a hit… I can get using it as an intro or something but...
“Home” continues that “too fast – too ballad” notion and it’s middle of the road approach makes it a little less appealing, while it’s not technically a bad track.
“For Your Love” is a fair attempt to do a proper hard rock tune, but while it has some brilliant moments, it sort of feels like it could have been more coherent… somehow.
“Fade to Black” had me scratching my head for obvious reasons – but it’s not a Metallica cover, but a proper piano + some guitars in the background ballad that gets electrified and diversified in the middle, one of the better ideas that they still somehow manage to not get quite right…
“Electric Blue” is more of a rock ‘n’ roll inspired and somewhat gyp’sleaze number, which makes it quite endearing…
“Rock My Funeral” is an odd sort of rockabilly influenced rocker that’s actually good fun...
Closing statement , “One Last Prayer” is not even a ballad, despite its intro being piano over a bit of a “recounting” of life’s achievements, but it gets louder before going back to its maudlin and forth again… fairly interesting and another narrow miss, when it could have been quite a hit…
While I’d be on the fence over “fencing” this one, which means that the band has gotten “better”, it’s a bit all over the place and inconsistent still, to say that it’s a must have, so I guess that if the band stays on the same path, a couple of albums later, they might be either “in the zone”, if they keep at it… but it’s all up in the air.
The production is handled by Jack Douglas, famous for his collaborations with Aerosmith, Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick among others, so that explains the good production, but the problem is that the vocals and the guitar seem to have some issues. The vocalist doesn’t have any real “grit”, which would really make these songs take flight, while the guitars on several songs of the album sound quite “thin” and brittle over some pretty plastic drumming with cymbal work quite out of focus… it’s not bad-bad, but when using a producer that’s so renowned, I’d expect an explosive – near perfect result, not this “good”/polished, but ultimately weak output… I’m guessing to go for that “Crue” sounds these days you’d be better off with some “Swedish” production dude, than anyone else…
“Back in Town” isn’t quite back – it’s also the “single”, but it suffers from all those issues, it feels too “controlled” and not as raw as it should…
In that respect “Mind Control” is more “like it” with the band upping their game on every level, a bit of fake grit on the vox that however works and a nice enough chorus…
The melody at the beginning of “Killing Me” lamely apes the Anastacia tune “Left Outside Alone”… but the guys put some effort in... that half saves the tune from being completely dismissible…
“Run Tiger Run” could have been quite excellent and it has a nice semi-acoustic chorus, but doesn’t get its verses as perfectly…
“Puppet on a String” turns up the sleaze factor, but while it apes Motley at their best, almost perfectly, it’s almost utterly forgettable…
“Words Ain’t Enough” is a decent semi ballad, just a bit too quick to be considered a proper one… almost like having 45rpm’ed a 33 record… I’m pretty sure that a more laid-back tempo might have worked better on this one…
Julis Fucik’s “Entry of the Gladiator’s” the most recognizable, “circus” theme heralds “Eat You Alive”, a sort of sing-along attempt to create an anthem, but the band seems to reference it far too often… so it’s more of a fluke than a hit… I can get using it as an intro or something but...
“Home” continues that “too fast – too ballad” notion and it’s middle of the road approach makes it a little less appealing, while it’s not technically a bad track.
“For Your Love” is a fair attempt to do a proper hard rock tune, but while it has some brilliant moments, it sort of feels like it could have been more coherent… somehow.
“Fade to Black” had me scratching my head for obvious reasons – but it’s not a Metallica cover, but a proper piano + some guitars in the background ballad that gets electrified and diversified in the middle, one of the better ideas that they still somehow manage to not get quite right…
“Electric Blue” is more of a rock ‘n’ roll inspired and somewhat gyp’sleaze number, which makes it quite endearing…
“Rock My Funeral” is an odd sort of rockabilly influenced rocker that’s actually good fun...
Closing statement , “One Last Prayer” is not even a ballad, despite its intro being piano over a bit of a “recounting” of life’s achievements, but it gets louder before going back to its maudlin and forth again… fairly interesting and another narrow miss, when it could have been quite a hit…
While I’d be on the fence over “fencing” this one, which means that the band has gotten “better”, it’s a bit all over the place and inconsistent still, to say that it’s a must have, so I guess that if the band stays on the same path, a couple of albums later, they might be either “in the zone”, if they keep at it… but it’s all up in the air.