Regular readers of this site will know that I usually take care of the harder fractions of the metal community. But it has not always just been thrash, death, doom, etc. for yours truly. No, I’ve been around the likes of Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Guns’n’Roses in my time, and I still enjoy high-hair music immensely when I’m in the mood.

By the closing of the eighties, Whitesnake elbowed their way into my ears with the warm, yet undeniably dark output of ‘Slip of the Tongue’, the white serpent’s last album proper until now. Moving back in the band’s history as I did, I found ‘1987’, a likewise warm and riff-laden effort and the earlier and more bluesy releases with Marsden and Moody. I liked it a lot.

I honestly never thought that a new Whitesnake album would see the light of day. When Coverdale almost pulled the plug because that golden throat of his was allegedly giving in, or the release of the weak ‘Into the Light’ album, I thought both facts hinted at a dying rock music phenomenon. But then a new band was put together. Touring started. A DVD came out. And a good one even, sporting a David Coverdale in great shape.

By the look of it, David Coverdale and guitarist Doug Aldrich fit each other like hand in denim glove. Together, the two have created an album that falls neatly into the line of classic releases we know Whitesnake for. Stylistically placing itself somewhere in the neighbourhood of ‘Slide It In’ and ‘1987’, the album is focused on voice, guitar and groove. On the whole, everything here is so Whitesnake: from the good quality bluesy rock’n’roll of Fool in Love over Lay Down Your Love which is reminiscent of In the Still of Night to the extremely catchy opener Best Years – all with the characteristic Coverdale voice in front, of course. The only fall-out is the ballad ‘Till the End of Time which concludes the album. It’s been done a lot better and more convincingly by Coverdale before, and therefore this one is a bit pointless.

The lyrical universe? Well, you guessed it: it’s all about man meets woman and things evolve from there. No surprise there.

Nor is it a surprise that the love stories are imbedded in catchy tunes and choruses that you feel you’ve known for ages more or less after the first spin of the disc. That, lads and lassies, is craftsmanship, and adding a bit of ‘I’ve got nothing to lose’ and ‘We’ll do what we like to do’ attitude, then you have a fantastic record!