Label: SPV/Steamhammer Records
Release date: September 30, 2022
Production: Ben Groose
Album length: 36.58 min.
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
It’s unbelievable the momentum with which The Dead Daisies keep infecting the planet with first-rate, classically built hard rock, leaning on the gains of the seventies school of rock. I’d say that school is archaic today, kept alive only by people putting the pioneering rock classics recorded and released in the seventies on the turntable off their own bat. So this is a relatively short-lived band, but one defined by an intense revolving door of rock and metal scene stars, which is more than justified by the excellent run of studio albums they’ve put out so far.
The band hit another turning point when Glenn Hughes joined as singer and bassist in one. Then in 2021 came the album “Holy Ground” (RockLine review). It’s a record carrying the strong songwriting and performing stamp of a famous voice and a towering figure of rock in all its vocal varieties. Hughes is one of a kind. Wherever he lands, the existing setup gets torn down and everything that follows gets built up. Trapeze went through that phase back in the day, then Deep Purple, even Black Sabbath, and so The Dead Daisies can’t escape it either. The superb “Holy Ground” is very much its own story. A good year and a half has passed since its release, and here’s its follow-up “Radiance” already. At least on this one, The Dead Daisies held on to an unchanged lineup. Or did they? Nope. Drummer Deen Castronovo – who went back to Journey – was replaced between the two albums by Aldrich’s practically-family friend and former Whitesnake buddy, the all-round drum grandmaster Brian Tichy (incl. Billy Idol, Foreigner). The constant remains the band’s leader, its quiet elder, father, mother, godfather and commander, rhythm guitarist David Lowy – the man whose finances keep The Dead Daisies going through all this feverish activity (incl. the band already ‘big-time’ presenting two new singles on this summer’s European tour, where they opened the shows for Judas Priest – incl. on July 12, 2022 in Ljubljana).
Compared to its predecessor “Holy Ground,” “Radiance” is a bit more compact, in the sense that it hits you with even greater rock directness. It clocks in at under 37 minutes, which is more than great. The material that made it onto the album, then, ignites as proven. Point to point. Minute to minute. All the way from the opening crashing and thundering in the bombastic phrasing, through the stamp-of-quality Face Your Fear, to the closing, mystical and melancholic Roll On, where The Dead Daisies dared to use a curtain of synthesizers.
Compared to “Holy Ground,” “Radiance” feels more musical. That shows especially in the singable, punchy choruses, which grab even harder than the moments on its otherwise excellent predecessor Holy Ground. The Dead Daisies get to the heart of the songs even faster than on the previous album. Practically instantly, in fact. The catchiness of the chorus melodies, which keep up that grabby appeal, works that much more intensely because of it (Face Your Fear, Born To Fly, Corageous, …). Hence the general feeling you get when you weigh the two albums against each other.
Aldrich’s solos keep the lead in that extraordinary combination of technically polished tightrope walking and the classic school of pioneering influences like Jimmy Page, Richie Blackmore and Tony Iommi. The craggy laying down of massive guitar phrases, over which the once-again unique and elusive seventy-plus-year-old Glenn Hughes wails with all his might, is here on the new album in full-blooded abundance too. The intense opening stretch of the album, with the opener Face Your Fear and Hypnotize Yourself, gets an extra jolt from the third track, the seriously fierce and sharpened Shine On – one of the sharpest and most bristling “Radiance” tracks. In places Glenn Hughes is so expressive, forceful, inexhaustible, let’s just say unstoppable, that the new The Dead Daisies album at times feels like his solo record. The title track certainly conjures up such a moment. On numbers like the rolling, almost Sabbath-style Aldrich riff inside the title track, or especially Cascade, Glenn deftly uses the space to weave in his brilliant vocal soul improvisations. You’re not surprised, are you? The track Not Human, written entirely by Glenn Hughes, surprises with the tearing, standout twists of Hughes’ bass playing. Next to Glenn’s new ‘vocal joys,’ these ‘stoutly thickened’ bass-line twists grab almost all the attention inside a song that picks up a funky undertone. No matter everything he’s seen and lived through, and no matter his age, Glenn keeps the drive, the fire and the passion, bordering on fanaticism, on “Radiance” too.
The newfound chemistry of the quartet, already successfully established on “Holy Ground,” carries over triumphantly to “Radiance.” The pairing of Aldrich’s phrases with the wonderful vocal expression of the one and only – the vocal excellence of Glenn Hughes – is a dream combination. Tichy’s shelling, or rather strafing, with cannon-fire blows, alongside Glenn Hughes’ fat, bulging bass playing, brings intense contrast inside the compositions and gives them depth, volume and sonic breadth.
That’s how simple it all sounds in The Dead Daisies’ hands. But you have to keep in mind that musicians of the Hughes, Aldrich and Tichy type are born once in a decade. When the stars align in the sky and such musicians happen to join into one unified musical body, a singular kind of magic is born, a unique blend of energy and ideas. The album “Radiance,” with its primal hard rock format, delivers a new story of flawless, boundless turning, roaring and thundering that gives you goosebumps. It’s the work of musicians with exceptional talent, experience and mileage, driven by an elemental fervor for the joy of playing and creating. On stage and in the studio. A manifesto like a teardrop of pure rock sincerity. You can’t go deeper or higher than that.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Face Your Fear
2. Hypnotize Yourself
3. Shine On
4. Radiance
5. Born To Fly
6. Kiss The Sun
7. Courageous
8. Cascade
9. Not Human
10. Roll On
Lineup:
Glen Hughes – vocals, bass guitar
Doug Aldrich – guitar
David Lowy – guitar
Brian Tichy – drums
