Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators have built up quite the reputation for blistering, modern Hard Rock. They are at it again with their new album 4, (Gibson Records / BMG), yep you guessed it their fourth record together and quite possibly their best. They called in the production skills of Dave Cobb, best known for Rival Sons and a whole host of Country music, and wanted to make a live rock record.

The result, recorded live in Nashville, is a barnstorming album packed with great songs, chemistry and a joie de vivre. Opener ‘The River is Rising’ gets things off to a cracking start, a pacey slab of rock n’ roll with a stomping groove and a dirty riff.  A dirty riff and a thick groove are also features of ‘Whatever Gets You By’, with its delightfully chunky bass and guitars. This momentum carries on for the whole forty-four minutes, with perhaps the slinkiest little earworm coming in the form of ‘Actions Speak Much Louder Than Words’

Similar to the Foo Fighters with Wasting Light (Roswell / RCA) the live, warts and all, recording on 4 really brings out the best in them,  fine tuning their craft and adding a heft and a balance to their sound. The chemistry oozes out of the speakers; nowhere is this more on show than ‘April Fool’ – an energetic number with an emphatic chorus sweetly sung by Myles Kennedy. ‘Call Off The Dogs’ is a fiesty blast of ‘80s sleaze – of the kind Guns N Roses used to do when they still had fire in their bellies. ‘Fill My World’ is the showpiece ballad here, a pleasant radio friendly number with the kind of cyclical, simple yet effective riff that is Slash’s bread and butter. 

The emotive, big bluesy bruiser ‘Fall Back To Earth’ closes the curtain on a rather good record. A record with nay an ounce of flab on it – bar ‘Spirit Love’ – that shows a band on top form.

Buy the album here: https://slash.lnk.to/4AlbumID

9 / 10

THOMAS THROWER