California Breed - California Breed

California Breed came to be after Black Country Communion disbanded. Bassist Glenn Hughes and legendary drummer Jason Bonham found promising young guitarist Andrew Watt and formed this sleaze/retro/hard rock band. Their self-titled debut album is a crossover between Wolfmother and Baroness with just a touch of Chris Cornell’s high-pitched vocal style.
 
This album is no exception in terms of the quality of each and every previous work by Glenn Hughes and Jason Bonham. Pretty tight and appealing to the ear, but at the same time kinda outdated. I mean there’s no way Glenn Hughes can’t keep a sweat groove on the bass on top of his gritty vocals, as there’s no way Jason Bonham can’t blast a tight rhythm on any given drum set. As for the new kid on the block, Andrew Watt also offers some pretty powerful guitar licks. However, it all sounds like yet another Black Country Communion record, and let’s face it, it’s not like Black Country Communion were ever anybody’s favourite band. To my ears, all 12 songs in “California Breed” are decent, but none of them pops.

 
To cut a long story short, what we have here is hard rock music as it used to be, nothing more, nothing less. I would never advise anybody against purchasing “California Breed”, but at the same time I wouldn’t exactly urge them either.