The awesome Southern rockers Preacher Stone are back with a brand new album, following up last year’s excellent V. I’ve loved the band for a while now so have been rather impatiently waiting for this release, so when I got it through our email there was no way I wasn’t checking it out early!
The title track kicks things off with plenty of energy; a fantastic blues riff and some powerful drums! The riffing continues between the lines of the verse, keeping the track bouncing perfectly. The vocals fit perfectly immediately too, and it all feels like it builds to the massively catchy chorus, the harmonies adding even more awesomeness to it! We also get some amazing lead guitaring in the middle and to close the track out, the duel soloing being fantastic and again fitting the vibe of the song so well. It’s a simply arranged yet very well written southern rock song, and sets the tone of the album perfectly!
‘Saddled and Rode’ opens on another fantastic riff, it having a stomping pace and energy to it when the drums and bass come in behind. It strips back in the verses, the dynamics of the track being fantastic as it makes the choruses hit even harder! The drumming in particular on this track, and throughout the whole album, is incredible, Josh Wyatt being hugely underrated behind a kit. Everything he does fits the riffing perfectly and adds so much to the song. Not that the rest of the band aren’t hugely talented too, however. As I said, the riffing and soloing is incredible, and Ronnie’s vocals fit the tracks awesomely. The chorus is so simple yet is going to be stuck in my head for days to come! It’s another excellent song, and an easy album highlight!
‘Writing on the Wall’ follows a similar formula to the previous two tracks, but again does so so damn well that it’s hardly a complaint! Everything about the track is so very catchy too, the dropped-down verses giving me early 2000s Black Stone Cherry or Lynyrd Skynyrd, and it building perfectly through the pre into an absolutely amazing chorus made to be played to massive festival crowds. It’s another fantastic song, and one that easily makes our playlist!
Tracks like ‘The Devil You Know’ , ‘Old Joe’ and ‘The Last to Know’ are all pretty similar, slightly slower and more blues oriented tracks. They all have a great stomp and swagger to them, with the former surprisingly reminding me of some of Iron Maiden’s modern stuff in its guitar work. All are truly excellent tracks, with the latter being another big favourite of mine from the album. The only reason I’ve grouped them together is so that I don’t repeat myself over and over!
‘Blessing and a Curse’ slows things down with a beautiful acoustic ballad. It’s the perfect change of pace slap bang in the middle of the album, and is an absolutely fantastic song in its own right! From the acoustic and slide guitars to the great vocals and incredible use of harmonies, it’s a really well constructed track. It’s honestly one of my favourite tracks on the album, everything about it is awesome. It’s catchy as anything, and the instrumentation throughout is amazing. It’s another made to be played to huge crowds in arenas around the world, and definitely one to check out if you’re going to try any from the album!
The final two tracks, ‘Come What May’ and ‘Think by Now’, are more awesome southern/hard rock from the band. It’s two more great, mid-tempo tracks, with the closers chorus in particular being another high point of the album! It’s also the perfect album closer, seemingly bringing it all back round to a similar point as the title track. Again, but are fun, boot-stompin’ songs that are simply rather similar to each other. However, that shouldn’t take away from either track, as both are great and worth listening to!
Overall: This is a damn good southern rock record! It’s short, sweet and right to the point, and because of that is very much all killer, no filler! All nine tracks on this are great, with some standing out among some of my favourite from the bands growing discography. I’m so glad the band returned to the studio faster this time after their last release, and what they have come out with is something excellent! I’d recommend it to anyone even slightly into southern, country or just hard rock in general!
The Score: 8.5/10