The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Discuss any band that's not called Alter Bridge.
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Jim
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Jim »

Yeah....
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anguyen92
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by anguyen92 »

Apparently, Kentucky on MP3 is on Amazon for only $5 for a limited time and it just so happens I have $5 left on my Amazon gift card making this a no-brainer of a buy. Album still holds up nicely and it's still my 2nd favorite album of 2016.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by One Drew Remains »

My favorite they have done since Folklore.
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Mr. Slash
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Mr. Slash »

New album out on April 4th. Four hundred and twenty blaze it bruh. So edgeyyyy. Here is the first single:


Sounds super boring to me.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Timotheus »

Not a good thing when it burns down there..

I liked the bridge/solo. For the rest pretty meh indeed. I surprisingly liked their last effort, so I'm hoping for some nice songs on this one.
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anguyen92 wrote:
Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Mr. Slash »

Album is out. Pretty much the worst album BSC have ever released imho.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by anguyen92 »

I heard it. I think it's an ok album. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as Kentucky. Maybe, I'm not a fan of the blues influence here as I thought I would. I probably would want a little bit more of that southern rock (is there a big of a difference between southern rock and blues rock?) meets that modern hard rock/post-grunge/alternative metal catchiness, but that's just me. I did enjoy Family Tree (the song) and Dancin' in the Rain (adding Warren Haynes from Gov't Mule was a great touch and they gelled well together).

That stated, I still find the Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and Magic Mountain (now if they had the foresight back then, they should have released Magic Mountain yesterday instead) to be the worst BSC albums. Family Tree on the lower end. Self-titled, Kentucky, and Folklore and Superstition as the best ones for me.

Still, this is better than what bands like Shinedown, FFDP, and Godsmack will offer this year, I feel.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Kreuger »

I heard one or two songs. After the last album took a step back toward their first two in sound, I was hopeful. But it's clear to me they will never surpass those two albums. What a shame. So much wasted potential.
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by anguyen92 »

Kreuger wrote:I heard one or two songs. After the last album took a step back toward their first two in sound, I was hopeful. But it's clear to me they will never surpass those two albums. What a shame. So much wasted potential.
I don't know why you have to word it as "wasted potential." You can say that you don't like the album for whatever reasons. No one forced them to make this kind of album. They wanted to go to that direction by themselves, which is quite admirable these days where bands that are their contemporaries want to either follow popular trends or cater to their fans. Heck, according to Chris Robertson, this the album that he wanted to be remembered for the most. I clearly disagree, but if a musician genuinely feels that way about their works even if some fans disagree, are the musicians wrong?
What's the album you want to be remembered for?
Black Stone Cherry - Family Tree

At this point in our career, I would say Family Tree, because it's the first time we've ever done a record completely on our own. The only thing that was done outside of Black Stone Cherry was the mastering, because mastering engineers are like aliens who do magic with fairy dust. We recorded and produced on our own with the engineer who worked on our debut album, and on the record we made when we were teenagers, Rock N' Roll Tape. John did the artwork, I mixed the record.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/bl ... ed-my-life

Family Tree is an album that they clearly were enthusiastic to make and one that they self-produced and didn't have any outside influences. It just happens to be an album that we don't like too much compared to Folklore and Superstition and Kentucky (I just like Kentucky that much).

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Kreuger »

Wasted potential because they clearly have talent but continue to put out garbage album after garbage album since the 3rd one.
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Mr. Slash »

Mark Tremonti just advertised the new album on his Twitter account. His "brothers from Black Stone Cherry." Lel

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by anguyen92 »

Kreuger wrote:Wasted potential because they clearly have talent but continue to put out garbage album after garbage album since the 3rd one.
I respectfully disagree that Kentucky was a garbage album. I put Kentucky as almost on par with Folklore and Superstition. Almost.
Mr. Slash wrote:Mark Tremonti just advertised the new album on his Twitter account. His "brothers from Black Stone Cherry." Lel
I wonder if Tremonti would get the call to be support for a BSC UK arena tour in late 2018? Also, Mark's tweet about that implies that the album will be out this Friday (not last Friday), although his sense of timing when tweeting is usually not on point anyways.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Kreuger »

It was certainly a step in the right direction but the fuzz sound got old fast
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by BSC »

I find it difficult to say bad things about these guys, because I do really like them as a band and they're one of my favourite live bands (seen them six times). When Folklore and Superstition came out I was crazy about them. This was also around the time I joined this forum and couldn't think of a suitable username. However, this is the first album of theirs which I've not really paid any attention to. The singles that I've heard, Burning, Bad Habit, Southern Fried Friday night (seriously wtf?) and one other, do absolutely nothing to interest me or hook me in.

Black Stone Cherry have always had songs about girls, weed or nonsense, but the songs I refer to have previously had interesting instrumentation and are on albums which have songs that are actually about something. From what I've heard, this album just lacks any substance what so ever. I have a particular dislike of the song Bad Habit, it's about nothing noteworthy and has an incredibly stupid chorus 'She's my bad, bad, bad habit'. Have they not heard Hot for Teacher? I can't listen to Bad Habit without thinking of Hot for Teacher. Then there's that instrumental bridge which sounds like it's been absolutely wedged in to try and make the song a little bit more listenable. Bad Habit is the only memorable song I've heard from this album, and it's memorable for all the wrong reasons. I really do want to support these guys and their new work, but when I think of the songs that got me into BSC like Lonely Train, Maybe Someday or Blind Man, and then I listen to Bad Habit, it just makes me slightly sad.

These guys are one of my favourite live bands, but I'm not even sure whether I'll see them live the next time their in the UK. Every time I've seen them they've been able to improve on their show, but I'd be very surprised if they could top the 'evening with' format I saw last time, that was a great night. Their setlists now are very heavy on the latter albums as well.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Mr. Slash »

BSC wrote:
Black Stone Cherry have always had songs about girls, weed or nonsense
Yea, but they also had more serious topics back in the days... With "Magic Mountain" their whole redneckish 420 blaze it bruh-style really kicked off.

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by BSC »

I just saw Black Stone Cherry for the seventh time on Thursday. To provide context, I only bought the tickets on Tuesday evening, I was reluctant to go for two reasons: firstly, their new album did not impress me at all, secondly, and more positively, whenever my Dad and I have seen BSC before, they've always put on a better gig than their previous gig. They've always gotten better, although the last time we saw them we saw their 'evening with' Kentucky tour, this was the set list:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/black-st ... a578d.html

Their last show was an incredible show, so I was being a bit pessimistic thinking they couldn't top their last show. However, my Dad was really keen on going, and I literally walk past the arena on my way home from work each day, so I got last minute tickets.

This was their setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/black-st ... 755c2.html

The support bands did a good job of getting us ready, and by the time The Cadillac Three came off stage, I was really excited to see some of my favourite songs live again. But I noticed that the arena was quite far from full. I was sat on the balcony, and you could see that there was a fair amount of space at the back of the floor and around the sides. I was curious to see what their stage set up was like as well, the last time I saw them in this arena (2014 - I think) they had quite a cool stage set up with walkways for the band to walk behind the drums.

When BSC came on it turned out that their stage set up was actually quite minimal, they had three screens behind their drummer, but they offered very little throughout the show and mainly displayed the band's logo. They opened with Burning, I feel like Burning is a pretty crap song anyway, and I don't think it did much to get the crowd going. But then they jumped into Me and Mary Jane and the crowd loved it. My Dad even stood up, kicked his chair back and started dancing (he's 52 and I've never seen such a reaction from him before). They then planned Rain Wizard, and as expected, they were building up some serious crowd energy, but then they played Bad Habit and the crowd didn't react as much. Them playing Bad Habit reminded me why I dislike the song, the shitty lyrics, the similarities to Van Halen's Hot for Teacher's chorus and the ridiculous wedged-in heavy bridge.

One of the things that jumped at me almost immediately is how this band has changed their image, they seem a lot more focused on their wardrobe now. Chris was wearing a hat with sunglasses (in an indoor arena?), the bassist looked like he was going through a mid-life crisis with a denim jacket and a hat, and the guitarist was wearing an absurd jacket. I also noticed the guitarist and bassist would do synchronised runs across the stage, they appear like they're more dressed up than Steel Panther. It's not very rock and roll and it's certainly not the same band I saw back in 2008 supporting Nickelback. But obviously, I appreciate things change.

Like I Roll is one of my favourite songs, so I was pleased they played it. I know this may be a controversial opinion, but I think their drummer is very sloppy and he frequently overplays songs. I'm a drummer and I love to listen to the drums, so I guess I'm a bit more tuned into hearing when the beat drop offs, but the drummer has made a good number of mistakes by this point already by either throwing his sticks and not catching them or by trying an over-ambitious fill and dropping his sticks. Whenever I've heard them play Like I Roll before, I've always thought the drummer ruined it slightly by playing these massive over the top fills on a rock ballad. During the second verse he decided to play some funk-type groove on his hi-hat and I think it killed the initial feel of the song. I get the impression he plays to entertain himself instead of serving the songs. Plus there are far too many mistakes or dropped beats for a professional drummer of this level. But I fully recognise that I'm in the minority with this view and I bet the majority of the crowd love his energy.

After this they played a new ballad-type song which I thought was nice. I noticed that the drum tech is also doubling up as a percussionist for a couple of songs, which adds a cool new dynamic and it would be nice if they could incorporate him into more of the set.

Next up was Cheaper to Drink Alone. I always thought this song was a bonus track from Kentucky? I was disappointed that this was the only song they chose from Kentucky, it's a good song, but not one of their best, I think In Our Dreams, Shaking My Cage, Rescue Me or Soul Machine are much better songs. Although Cheaper does fit in within their new classic rock vibe. Cheaper featured one of the first unnecessarily long jams of the night, although they introduced the band at the same time and it featured some cool percussive action from the drum tech. I may be nitpicking here, but their guitarist had a tambourine for most of the jam, which was fine when he was next to a mic and you could hear the instrument, but he spent a very long time away from the mic, shaking a tambourine which none of us can actually hear. It seemed a bit surplus to purpose to me.

Cheaper dragged along for a while, but the energy soon picked back up again when they played Soulcreek. After Soulcreek they played another forgettable new song and the energy dropped. Things picked up again with Things My Father Said, but shortly after there was another forgettable new song which featured another unnecessary extended jam. I left during this song, went for a piss and went to the bar for a couple of drinks and they were still playing it when I got back!

In My Blood and Blind Man were great and it felt like things were picking up again for good.... until a drum solo, the drum solo lead to a somber blues cover and my god, they dragged it out for so long. It must have gone on for around 15 minutes, it felt like an eternity. Just went you think they were going to wrap it up, they kept on playing. Even my Dad, who was previously losing his mind to BSC not that long ago, was sat in his chair struggling to stay awake. There was a significant amount of crowd noise so they were really losing the crowd.

Immediately after the cover finished, we got back to classic BSC and they played Lonely Train, I can never tire of hearing that song live. A couple of classic songs later they closed the main set with a new song. It was probably the best new song I heard all night, but I thought it was a ballsy move to end on a new song. They did an encore of Peace Is Free which was brilliant as expected. Chris asked the crowd to link hands towards the end and I don't think he fully appreciated our British/Welsh awkwardness, but a good majority of the crowd participated.

To conclude, it was a really mixed set for me. When it good, it was fucking good. Classic live BSC and I would love to see more of that again, but their new album is so bland, forgettable and lacking in energy. Normally I love it when you see a band and they're not afraid to play their new songs, but the crowd simply weren't responding to the new songs, and they don't compare to songs like Rain Wizard, Soul Creek or Lonely Train. The set featured three extended jams which just felt really bloated and unnecessary, especially their cover. I felt like BSC were playing for themselves, as opposed to playing for the audience. I don't necessarily have anything against jams at a concert, but they easily could have fit in another three classic songs but for these jams. I've seen them in this arena before and they've kicked ass, but this show felt more like a club show, as opposed to an arena show, and it didn't work, they weren't able to capture and maintain the crowd's energy. I feel this show, especially with the extended jams and minimal stage show, would have been much more suited to a club setting where you can have a more intimate connection between the band and the crowd.

I'll definitely see them when I can, but I hope that they have left behind this silly classic rock phase by the time they tour over here again.

I'm not entirely sure why I spent all this time typing this out. Apologies if there's any typos or grammatical errors (presuming anyone reads this, of course).

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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by Nick_917 »

Going to try and resurrect this thread with the new album being released. What does everyone think?

Overall I'm enjoying it. There are quite a few bangers and I like the overall vibe. I do think the drums, while they sound great, are a little too loud and kind of push the guitars back in the mix. I also feel like they could have expanded on a few of their ideas. Some songs seem a little rushed, but the album works pretty well as a whole. They've definitely matured over the years and the musicianship is as tight as ever. I think it would fit in nicely near the middle of their catalogue. It was a refreshing listen during these crazy times.
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Re: The Official BLACK STONE CHERRY Thread

Post by davidstvz »

I should give them a spin again. I enjoyed the first album but didn't like the second so much and have never listened to another album.

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