AFTER four years away from the limelight, Sheffield rock heavyweights Black Spiders have unveiled their monster of a self-titled comeback album.
Boasting 13 tracks of high-energy, riff-heavy realness, the five-piece have truly bounced back with a bang. Album opener and lead single “Fly in the Soup” flings you into the classic rock deep end and reminds you why you missed them for these four long years.
The pace rapidly increases on “Stabbed in the Back”, with drummer Wyatt Wendels relentlessly keeping up with the repetitive driving guitar riffs from Mark Thomas. Things take a turn for the prog on the strangely titled “Wizard Shall Not Kill Wizard”, perfectly showcasing Black Spiders innate ability to master each string to their metal bow.
The vocals on “Back in The Convent” are insanely impressive from both Pete Spiby and Ozzy Lister, with high notes perfectly mastered left and right, not to mention some insanely quick bass riffs from Adam Irwin. “Good Times” is begging to be played live and loud; you can get a taster of what THAT will be like from this at-home performance below!
“Death Comes Creepin” has that gothic á la Ozzy vibe throughout, and really suits the band’s stylings well. Aptly named “Rock and Roll” does what it says on the tin; the deep rumbling guitar chugs away threateningly. This song has a really cool message that hit me unexpectedly too, as Spiby bellows out in the chorus, “rock and roll with be the death of me, give it back to the girls, because they’re out of this world,”.
Standout track for me comes in the form of “Down to The River”; it oozes swagger and just a general cool-ass-guys vibe, it sums up the best things about the classic rock style for me. Closer “Crooked Black Wings” has some really interesting timing throughout the entire intro, before launching into what I suspect what would be an awesome encore track in a live set. It’s the perfect sum-up of this hell-for-leather heavy hitter of an album, and those crowd vocal samples are begging to be heard in a festival tent.
Released ten years after their debut record Sons of The North, Black Spiders have perfectly rounded out their coming of age story. The thing I like about them is despite it being an entire decade later, although they’ve expanded and grown, their sound is still perfectly recognisable as quintessentially them. They managed to reach no.59 on the UK album chart with 2013’s This Savage Land, and I sincerely hope they can top that this time around!
Black Spiders’ Black Spiders is released this Friday, March 26th, via Dark Riders Records. Pre-order it here!
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