Fronted by one of rock’s greatest singers – David Coverdale, Whitesnake
have been knocking around for 31 years. During that time there have been 29
former members including ace drummers Cozy Powell, Ian Paice, and ex-Deep
Purple organist John Lord amongst others.
One of my claims to fame is meeting ex-guitarist Adrian Vandenberg at a
friend’s wedding in Enschede Holland in 2000.
It now consists of ever present founder member David Coverdale (vox), Doug
Aldrich (guitars), Reb Beach (guitars), Uriah Duffy (bass), Timothy Drury (keyboards)
and Chris Frazier (drums).
To celebrate their 30th anniversary, they release their first album in 10
years which features 11 new songs – eight rockers and three ballads.
For me Whitesnake always delivered the goods with power ballads. Their rockers
seemed to fall short of real quality and that still applies now. They failed
to hit the spot as much of their work left me cold, though Top 10 singles
Is This Love and Here I Go Again (1987) were top class, though
as hard as they try, nothing here matches them.
Predictably they deliver an adrenalin rush from the get-go: Best Years
is just average rock fodder; thumping riffs and horrible gratuitous solos in
attempt to create a new anthem. Dirty guitars keep the momentum going on Can You Hear The Wind Blow?,
but again it fails to impress. Call On Me has more of a commercial
appeal, but again those gratuitous solos are grating – I hate them.
Inevitably they’re looking to match past glories (and seeking a new anthem),
so All I Want All I Need is probably going to tick the box, though it’s
too reminiscent of their '80s efforts. You know its Whitesnake but that’s about
it. Sounds like they’re trying to compete with George Thorogood’s blistering
Bad To The Bone on Good To Be Bad (they even mention the lyrics)
but it’s a pitiful attempt.
The classiest moments are heard on soaring rocker All For Love, but
guess what? Those solos are back and it’s infuriating. Summer Love is nice
enough a ballad, even if it’s forgettable. Its no secret Coverdale had a thing
about Led Zeppelin in the '80s with Lay Down Your Love an undisputable
homage to them.
Got What You Need is trash rock: unbelievably bad. The best of the lot
is Till The End Of Time, a lightweight ballad. To be truthful, after a
10-year hiatus, this bitterly disappointing. Much of Whitesnake’s repertoire
was always style over substance, like a poor man’s Led Zep or Deep Purple.
Things haven’t changed.
1. Best Years
2. Can You Hear The Wind Blow?
3. Call On Me
4. All I Want, All I Need
5. Good To Be Bad
6. All For Love
7. Summer Rain
8. Lay Down Your Love
9. A Fool In Love
10. Got What You Need
11. ’Til The End Of Time
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
