Black River – Black’n’Roll (2010)

Featuring members from the almighty Behemoth, Vesania and Dimmu Borgir we have today Black River and their second full-length release “Black’n’Roll”. Playing Hard Rock/Stoner Rock, this band is something we would never have expected from members of primarily Black Metal bands. However, with “Black’n’Roll’ the band will surely turn more than one heads with their super catchy Rock music.

Black River starts rocking since the funny titled song “Barf Bag” and continues to blast one catchy song after another one. There is not a single track on this release that is not full of traditional Hard Rock that will make you want to headbang since the opening riff until the last.

While the band rocks hard, they are not original at all. All the instruments are played ‘by the book’ in order to craft catchy and rocking melodies. The riffing is pretty solid and the solos are good, but they are nothing new, the same goes for the drumming. But we don’t feel this is bad at all, since the music is good enough to provide a nice time for fans of the genre.

Coming from Poland, we might expect this band will get a few weird looks since their contributions to Metal are more in the Black/Death Metal department. But Black River provides a nice change of pace between all the countless bands that play ‘the same type of music’.

The vocals are very decent with a small vibe from Volbeat and Soil. While they are nothing to call home about, they are good enough to carry the weight of all the catchy music provided by the rest of the band. One song that strikes us as very odd is “Jumping queeny flash” a cover-mixture of songs by the Sex Pistols and Rolling Stones.

In general, Black River, is a good band and has created a solid release with “Black’n’Roll”. If you are looking for a Black Metal album or something similar stay far far away from this one, but if you are ready to rock, then get this release.

Release: July 20th, 2010

Country: Poland