Pazartesi 22 Kas 2010, 21:00
on my way back to elizabethtown, i stopped in murfreesboro, tn and invaded best buy. a usual ploy in dire states of boredom.
stumbled across a band that i had a few singles by; Black Sunshine.
matt reardon brings his modern brand of rock to the forefront of the scene with some of the best production quality i've heard in years. lush instrumentation by way of acoustics overlays with tight, crunchy guitar riffs, all underneath a voice which resembles a shot of brent smith from shinedown spiked with a dose of wes scantlin and damien starkey.
the album starts off with an intro with matt scanning the radio for about 30 seconds… then the album erupts with the blistering opener "holy gasoline," which features the best riff i've heard all year. the record just steamrolls through 11 tracks, littering in its sonic wake, lush mid tempo rockers such as "skeletons," "tears," and "cannonball." of these, "skeletons" is the standout track. this song is deep and just rips your heart out of your chest. and tired, lonesome, regretful ode to a former love, reardon admits his faults and accepts blame from the skeletons of his past.
while some pundits in the arena of rock will write black sunshine and reardon off as merely another act in the straits of puddle of mudd and shinedown, they feign a palsy attempt because reardon's songwriting is stellar to the aforementioned. bringing all of this to the helm is one of the greatest producers in the business, bob marlette. marlette recently brought FILTER and their new album "the trouble with angels," to heights Patrick and his new band couldnt have done with anyone else, let alone themselves. marlette is to credit for FILTER's sonic wall of murderous thunder and the same intensity cane be and is undoubtedly heard here.
ladies and gentlemen, i bring you black sunshine. the oxymoronic name symbolizing the good and bad we go through in life, is icing on the cake of all the wonder that embellishes this impeccable record. by far, the best hard rock release of 2010. and for $9.99, nothing is more worth your hard earned cash.