One must admire David Coverdale\u2019s persistence and unending commitment to the Whitesnake brand. Since the official reformation in the mid-2000s, there has been a steady supply of new material, live albums, concert films from the endless dates on the road, and of course, The Purple Album<\/i> (it\u2019s terrible, by the way.) <\/p>\n
For the most part, this constant activity has been a pleasing ride for fans of the band like myself and despite the occasional line-up change (Doug Aldrich departed and was replaced by Joel Hoekstra in 2015 prior to the Purple<\/i> fiasco), Coverdale has managed to keep the material fresh and the sound rooted firmly in the hair rock days of 1987 and beyond.<\/p>\n
For this latest effort, the lineup consists of Coverdale on vocals, Hoekstra on guitars, Rob Beach on guitars (still), Michael Devin on bass, Michele Luppi on keys, and \u2018Snake stalwart Tommy Aldridge on drums. Beach and Hoekstra produced the album along with Coverdale and Michael McIntyre; they also co-wrote no less than nine of the thirteen tracks with Coverdale.<\/p>\n
Flesh & Blood<\/i> itself definitely sounds like a \u201cband\u201d album. There\u2019s a tight cohesive sound that is relentless throughout the entire record. Of all the recent Whitesnake releases, this one sounds the most \u201clive,\u201d the most like the guys are standing in a circle grinding these songs out one by one the old fashioned way. For that part, I\u2019ve enjoyed listening to this record; it\u2019s fun, sexy, and powerful. Coverdale\u2019s voice has held up well. His beautiful rich baritone is still killer but the higher range has lost a lot of what it once had. This is to be expected, and thankfully there is minimal screaming and shrieking here so it\u2019s not that noticeable (unlike some of the recent gigs.)<\/p>\n
A couple of minor gripes would be the overall sound. Yes, the band is tight, but I\u2019m not a fan of the amount of compression that seems to be have employed here during the mix. When I listen to a band like this, I want it loud and I want it to knock me sideways \u2013 this just sounds a little too \u201cradio friendly\u201d for my liking. As a typical \u2018Snake affair, we have the massive power chords (the banger \u201cWell I Never,\u201d the second single \u201cTrouble Is Your Middle Name,\u201d and the killer title track.)<\/p>\n
We also unfortunately have the power ballads. \u201cGonna Be Alright\u201d is the strongest of this set; it\u2019s also the fastest, so that\u2019s probably why. \u201cHeart Of Stone\u201d is a fine breakdown, a sweet lower-range performance from Coverdale but lyrically a bit silly and overly clich\u00e9d. \u201cAfter All\u201d is a sappy acoustic track that almost seems like an afterthought here. Two of the best cuts to be found here are the first and last songs. The opener \u201cGood To See You Again\u201d is classic Whitesnake: massive chords, gang vocals, and a snarling vocal from Coverdale. Closer \u201cSands Of Time\u201d is a mid-tempo march through the past and a perfect way to close out this solid (but far from classic) Whitesnake album.<\/p>\n
Overall, Flesh & Blood<\/i> sits somewhere in the middle of the entire \u2018Snake catalogue. It\u2019s far from their worst, but also a ways off their best. As far as the last two decades go, it\u2019s redemption for The Purple Album<\/i>, much more consistent than Good To Be Bad<\/i>, but falls short of the latter day classic Forevermore<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":34021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5777],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45850","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-whitesnake","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45850"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45850"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}