Folklore & Superstition by Black Stone Cherry

Track Listing:

1. Blind Man
2. Please Come In
3. Reverend Wrinkle
4. Soul Creek
5. Things My Father Said
6. The Bitter End
7. Long Sleeves
8. Peace Is Free
9. Devil's Queen
10. The Key
11. You
12. Sunrise
13. Ghost of Floyd Collins

Reviews of Folklore & Superstition:

2nd album, 2nd to none
After their very succesful and very listenable self titled album, Black Stone Cherry had a mountain to climb in order to even reach that level. Well, they managed it, and have delivered another heavy hitting southern flavoured offering - Folklore and Superstition kicks off with the extremely catchy 'Blind Man' followed by the equally strong 'Please Come', 'Reverend Wrinkle' and 'Soulcreek'. The next song, however, is completely different. 'Things my father said' is a soft ballad with a Zakk Wylde-esque piano intro. This song fits right into the album; and with the rest of the songs to follow, with 'Devil's Queen' and 'Peace is Free' being the standout tracks. That being said, the album is not perfect: the lyrics of the songs are still the weakest part of the album - though they are much improved from their debut album. A worthy buy.

Worthy follow-up to a fantastic debut
Kentucky's Black Stone Cherry's debut album, released in 2006, was absolutely fantastic - a breath of southern-fried fresh air with huge riffs, powerful vocals, sizzling guitar solos and wonderful melodies and, I'm pleased to say, their second album, 'Folklore & Superstition', pretty-much continues where their debut left off, apart from, perhaps, being (only very) slightly less heavy and maybe a tad more commercially-minded - I have to say that during the insanely catchy 'Soul Creek', they drift dangerously close to Bon Jovi territory, although Bon Jovi never sounded quite as heavy as this. It may be that this album suffers a little by comparison - the debut was an extremely hard act to follow - and yet, if you had never heard of Black Stone Cherry before, this particular album could be just as good an introduction to their music as the debut.

So, who do they sound like? Well, without wanting to sound facetious, they sound like themselves. Black Stone Cherry have enough of a varied sound and mixture of styles to allow themselves never really to be pigeon-holed into sounding like a copy of any one band. I suppose, during their heavier moments, they sometimes remind me of 'Vs.'-era Pearl Jam, without the downer lyrics or vocals, of course or perhaps even the first Audioslave album ('Long Sleeves', especially). The standout tracks, for me, are the storming 'Blind Man', the radio-friendly light and shade of 'Please Come In', the heavy-riffing dark-but-melodic metal of 'Reverend Wrinkle', the adrenaline rush of 'Devil's Queen' and, perhaps the best track on the album, 'Ghost Of Floyd Collins', which could easily be an Ozzy Osbourne classic.

Other tracks such as the albeit very pleasant and touching 'Things My Father Said', the anthemic 'Peace Is Free' and the perhaps slightly formulaic 'You' do take Black Stone Cherry a little close to rock ballad cliché in musical terms, but, on balance, you would have to say that the lighter songs help to break the album up and avoid an overload of out-and-out rockers, even though it is most certainly during the heavier moments that Black Stone Cherry truly shine. Having said that, I don't want to sound overly critical, because there is nothing actually terrible on this record and this is more than a worthy follow-up to their debut. Indeed, providing they concentrate on their bluesy heavy rock sound and they are able to reproduce the magic they undoubtedly captured on their first album rather than expanding on the more commercial side they have revealed here, this is a band who could easily be a major name in hard rock in years to come.


Southern Hard Rock, almost perfect
So here we go, the second album from Black Stone Cherry is here, and it's been worth the wait.
Southern Rock has never sounded so fresh and contemporary, killer guitar lines, powerful vocals and improved songwriting all contribute here to a band rapidly on the rise.
Things don't really get much better than album opener "Blind Man" which believe me is a good thing, because this song is easily one of the best rock songs I've heard this year.
The Ballad "Things my father said" again fits in beautifully, its a tearful reflection on one's dad who has passed away.
It's a shame a band like this is not very well known, by that I mean the casual music listener, because it really is a quality album.



Less Nickleback please
Not bad but not great. Ony half as good as first album. Some good riffs and ideas interspersed with disappointing rock hero/commercial/protracted choruses. I can almost hear the record company rep saying - "great first album but can't you make it more accessible? Something the kids will like and sing along to. Then we gonna hit the big time - think of the cash...Have a cigar..." Less Nickleback more Sabbath next album please. I have booked tickets for Oxford gig in December with the Answer - may get blown out by the supoport act.

pure brilliance
bought this album after hearing Blind Man on Scuzz. The album turned out to be complete suprise. You know what it's like, you buy an album after hearing one song and you often find the one song you bought it for was the only decent song on it. Not the case with this one, the whole album does not have a bad song on it. Its got everything, great lyrics, good strong vocals and some amazing guitar work.

go buy it.

---

Customers who shopped for Folklore & Superstition also bought:

	Death Magnetic Limited Edition by Metallica
	Black Stone Cherry by Black Stone Cherry
	Runnin Wild by Airbourne
	Silver Spoons & Broken Bones by Stone Gods
	Black Ice by AC/DC