You have to cut through a faint haze of hairspray and a thin veneer of glitz and glam to get there, but once you reach the music at Jettblack's core - a contemporary slant on classic rock that raucously subverts the glamrock aesthetic - you'll be glad you made the effort.
It's no surprise to learn they've been supporting bands like
Airbourne and
Whitesnake (from whom they have clearly learned a lot).
This full blooded debut is full of snarling, swaggering riffs, stretched tight and holding taut throughout an album of well crafted songs and down to the wire delivery.
Razoring axes and hardbodied hooks combine perfectly with John Dow's scorched voice and sometime Coverdale vocal mannerisms, creating a defiantly airlocked British version of modern hard rock.
Lyrically, if you're looking for sidelong glances at social mores and modern morality, you'll be mightily disappointed. Hard rock brooks no place for subtlety. Relationships are decidedly casual and full of schoolboy fantasy, as evinced by openers,
'Slip It On' (a close relation to 'Slide It In') and
'Two Hot Girls', neither of which (the songs I mean) need much explanation.
Musically, there are nods to convention - respectful but never restricting - in the band's power hungry music, which appears to suck up thousands of volts of electricity then regurgitate them in three and four minute blasts of highly tuneful and highly energetic melodic hard rock.
What's surprising then is Jettblack's economical delivery of this musical rough and tumble
. 'War Between Us' and '
When It Comes To Lovin' elegantly surf the tide of classic rock resurgence. No theatrics, no histrionics and only an occasional tongue in cheek.
As on many tracks, '
Fooled By A Rose's monster riff and Free/Bad Company tendencies (cowbells too!) mask technically outstanding musicianship.
The title track and first single, '
Get Your Hands Dirty' takes something from
Motley Crue and Skid Row as well as
Whitesnake, and the relatively pared down '
Sleep' takes a giant if temporary step into US Rock/Metal chart territory.
Jettblack's is as good a release as you'll hear this or any other year. With Universal behind them and a string of summer festivals before them they've got a genuine shot at stardom.
Written by
Brian Monday, June 28, 2010
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