Black Star Riders –All Hell Breaks Loose
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Highlights: Bound for Glory, Kingdom of the Lost, Kissing the Ground, Hey Judas, Valley of the Stones, Someday Salvation, Before the War, Blues Ain’t So Bad
In 2010, Thin Lizzy impossibly resurfaced with a new singer/guitarist (Ricky Warwick), and former Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham, original drummer Brian Downey, and longtime keyboard player Darren Wharton. The band was rounded out by bassist Marco Mendoza and guitarist Damon Johnson and they toured pretty extensively for the better part of 3 years on the European festival circuit as Thin Lizzy. This line up was met with a lot of fan acclaim but at the same time many fans of former and long gone leader Phil Lynott shouted “travesty” from the mountain tops. How can these guys go out as Thin Lizzy when the heart and soul of this band was not even around anymore?
I have a lot of mixed emotions behind this but in the long run, it wasn’t like an all orginal band going out with just a new singer or what not. You’re talking about a band that had only ONE original member and couple of guys who were in the band later on in the band’s career. Singer/guitarist Ricky Warwick did an amazing job but it all just felt like a Thin Lizzy cover band and just when I was about to write them off, something very amazing and honorable happened. Scott Gorham announced that he truly didn’t like going out with the Thin Lizzy moniker (it was a management/business decision) and that the band would be making some changes and going forward as Black Star Riders.
In a move very reminiscent to Heaven & Hell (Dio era Sabbath under a new moniker that played only Dio era Sabbath songs), the safe moniker of Thin Lizzy was dropped and a new name and identity has been adopted. Why is this risky? Well, the guys could’ve continued to rake in the bucks as a touring nostalgia act living off of the name and legacy of Thin Lizzy. Why is this admirable? Well, it’s admirable because the guys obviously struck up a relationship that made them want to move forward as an original band with their songs, their own name, and their own identity. The result of this move is the debut album from Black Star Riders called All Hell Breaks Loose.
So first off, guess who this album sounds like? You guessed it… THIN LIZZY. But you know what? That’s ok. Warwick has been sounding like Phil Lynott since his days in his former band The Almighty so it’s not really a surprise that he got picked to front this band. The fact that these guys took it to another level and decided to make some new, original music made it easier for me to go into listening to this album and boy am I ever glad I did. Black Star Riders knocked it out of the park with this album in my opinon by delivering a fun, melodic, freewheeling rock n’ roll record that would have Phil Lynott himself looking and saying, “Now you’ve got it mates. Carry on.”
There’s nothing super ground breaking about this record and in all honesty, it’s not the kind of record you would listen to for some deep, introspective music. This is a band capturing the spirit of good times had with great friends, drinking after hours in a park, and just getting into all kinds of mischief only to write and sing about it 20 years later. All Hell Breaks Loose is the kind of album that makes an old guy feel young again. It makes you close your eyes, think of that girl you used to fancy and maybe even steal a kiss with from time to time as a huge smile crosses your face. Black Star Riders set out to make a great, solid rock n’ roll record and they did just that. Yeah, they sound like Thin Lizzy. Get over it. I can think of a million worse things you could say about this band. As far as I’m concerned, Black Star Riders have the right to sound like whomever the fuck they want because they are making music on their own terms now and in all honesty, I hope the keep doing so for a long time to come.
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