Band:
David Coverdale (vocals)
Doug Aldrich (guitars)
Reb Beach (guitars)
Michael Devin (bass)
Brian Tichy (drums & percussion)
Discography:
Trouble (1978)
Lovehunter (1979)
Ready an' Willing (1980)
Come an' Get It (1981)
Saints & Sinners (1982)
Slide It In (1984)
Whitesnake (1987)
Slip of the Tongue (1989)
Restless Heart (1997)
Good to Be Bad (2008)
Guests:
Timothy Drury (keyboards)
Info
Produced by Los Bros Brutalos (David Coverdale, Doug Aldrich, Michael McIntyre)
Released 25/3-2011
Reviewed 3/5-2010
Links:
whitesnake.com
myspace
Last FM
frontiers
It actually sounds a bit wrong what I just wrote. It sounded like Whitesnake was horrible on their albums and only works live, which off course isn’t really true. Whitesnake have been good on record as well, but as a band that are quite average on album – neither good nor bad – they are amazing live. The band have on album given us hit like Fool For Your Loving, Here I Go Again and almost a dozen other minor hits which the generation of the 70’s grew up with and had their first love related tears to in their teenage rooms. But live is where this band are at their best. This is where every part of them comes alive and where they can play to their fullest potential. And Coverdale, whom as I said isn’t the best vocalist on albums, hides his weaknesses in the great live show. An album can’t hide this, and ‘Forevermore’ is no exception. Instead it puts a wooden axe in the back of Coverdale and then laugh a crow like laugh in his face for his pathetic attempts to stumble through the album.
Actually, that was a bit unfair again. It almost sounds like Coverdale would be the worst vocalist in the world without any fragment of quality at all in his voice, but that isn’t true of course. Coverdale isn’t superb, but to call him a vocalist without any quality at all is something that is pretty unfair towards the guy. He has a special kind of voice, hard and powerfull like the hard rock and metal vocalists used to be in the 70’s and 80’s. It's not particularly beautiful, but it has this raw power that most of todays fuzzy teen age vocalists can’t even get close to. Coverdale is more like a shark that wants to tear his love victims in to tiny pieces of meat. Because love victims is probably the right thing to call the fans of Whitesnake since the band always sings about love, sex and women.
The cover hasn’t the classic snake logo anymore, instead it’s a golden, boring cover that really is as dull as a snake hell. But you shouldn’t judge the book from the cover, even if it has a logo that is so strange that it almost looks like the band name is Bhitesnake. The music is angry, it got bite and slither around the rock 'n' roll melodies with shrieking guitars and a pretty simple song structure. It's well played and well arranged, as well as well produced. The sound bites you like a python and instrumentally it's more wild than a puff adder that's being held in the tail (is it right to say tail about the back of snakes?). And the more you listen to the album, the angrier it feels. It's not at all like a snake that has had the poison extracted, it is a snake that still want to bite you paralyzed.
To me it feels quite surprising to hear Whitesnake be this way since they've only released one album the last 20 years, not counting 1997's 'Restless Heart' which was recorded with the purpose of being a solo album for Coverdale, but ended up being released as "David Coverdale & Whitesnake" in the last minute after pressure from the recod label. I though they would be a bit tired and rusty because of their old age and lack of releases, but 'Forevermore' sounds competent and ready to bite. That real poison injection - the one that like an anaconda leaves us breathless - that might be missing. But the album don't have a shortage of energy and feeling, which is something you could have expected from a band that's been playing since the seventies and released ten albums, but as I said only 1 1/2 the last 22 years with 2008's release 'Good to be Bad' as the only real one.
'Forevermore' do absolutely have what it takes to be a big hit and awake those elder that have lost their fate and urge them put on their old jeans wests back on and let the hair grow long around their bald parts. The album slither around the average and from time to time raise its head for a better bite, but unfortunately it never attacks. That immidiate hit-songs is missed, so also the wow-factor. The qualty overall is good and sometimes they even add some extra instruments beside the guitars, bass and drums, like harmonica and keyboards. And towards the end it starts to pay off. Even Coverdales voice starts to come into place and the concluding ballad Forevermore becomes almost like a movie ending. All I miss is the credits rolling.
'Forevermore' just keeps growing on me. I didn't think it had much at all to brag about in the beginningt, but the more you listen to it, the more you feel the snake has crawled out from the winter hiding hole and has come to put fear into all the children and bite everyone that has left the door open enough for the snake to slither inside. It's the best Whitesnake album in a long time - maybe even the best one ever. Maybe the Whitesnake album that will be with us as we go into the future. Maybe the one that we will play, Forevermore...
HHHHHHH
