Screamin’ At The Sky by Black Stone Cherry

Review written by Slash1987

Black Stone Cherry is an American rock band formed in 2001. Releasing their first self-titled album in 2006, they now have a catalog of 8 total albums, the newest being Screamin’ At The Sky. This is the first and only album I’ve ever listened to by them and I have to say, they wield greatness. I’d describe them as a good blend of that current pop-rock sound mixed with the legendary rock eras before it. Chris Robertson is the lead of this band, and man, does he have a refreshing voice. He has a great vocal range; while listening to this album I could almost hear his possible vocal inspirations distinctly. Ben Wells is the Slash of this band, bringing a similar completely unique sound with his guitar and serving this band perfectly. The other two members unfortunately I can not talk as much about. I do know that Steve Jewell is the newest member of the band, having been added as the new bass player for this album. Then finally there’s John Fred Young as the drummer. While like I said I can not say too much about them I can say, that they are just as important as the frontmen of the band, just like any other healthy band.

Diving into this album, the first song we start with is the title of the album Screamin’ At The Sky. This song is a call to action somewhat like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister. This song screams about the stress of the world crashing down on us leaving us for dead, and this verse from the song that I will show you only enforces it: “Let’s start a fire / let it burn out the silence, / That’s killing us inside / Let’s paint a picture so we always remember / Screaming at the sky.” Quite powerful, isn’t it? While this song is solid I feel the lyrics get lost a bit in the loudness of the rest of the band. That’s not to say that the rest of the band is not killer in this song, but I could say it could use better mixing.

There are twelve tracks on this album so I’ll only cover a select few for the sake of my sanity. “When The Pain Comes” is your typical broken relationship song. This song most reminds me of a Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators song, especially with how the vocals rise and fall similarly to Myles Kennedy (especially with the mandatory guitar solos). I do have to say they tend to keep their solos short which I think leads to better flow in the songs throughout. With a band like Slash’s, they tend to make long solos so you can really sit there and absorb the words Slash puts into his guitar. With this being a smaller band I applaud them for not overdoing themselves.

“Nervous” is this album’s most listened-to song on Spotify, and I can definitely see why. It is very well crafted; I can tell whoever wrote this definitely took great care in how the lyrics build in dramatic effect as the song goes on. Something that makes this song great is the rhyme scheme the band proudly presents: “And promises just waiting to be broken, / A different voice, a different day, / All the same in a different way / Lies are sweeter softly spoken.” This is such a small part of the intro but look at how it rhymes. This is something that is kept throughout the song. While It may not stay constant all throughout the song, we see subtle and obvious examples of rhyme and also repetition, making this a definite earworm song. If only radios would play bands that would swear again…

Finally, my favorite song from this album is “Show Me What It Feels Like.” It opens with a killer riff that couldn’t be backed up without the loud thrashing of the drums almost giving you the feeling of whiplash. This song is about the feeling of having an addiction to specific women. For me, this is something that brings back memories of 80s and 90s rockers and let me tell you, this song delivers if you like that era. I hate to bring another project with Slash into this but it really gives me memories of Guns N’ Roses’s “Bad Obsession” from Use Your Illusion Part I. Breaking away from that big star band, this band is bringing a flavor that those legends are in fact missing nowadays. Especially with the verse, “Show me what it feels like, / Show me what it feels like to be alone with you, / Show me what it feels like, / Show me what it feels like to be the one for you,” which has been stuck in my head constantly while writing this review.

While Black Stone Cherry is on their eighth album, after listening to this album I can not even imagine what is on the rest of their albums. I feel they hold something great for the future of rock. Their inspirations are clearly defined, and they definitely have a distinct voice. The band they have created kicks ass and that is not up for debate. They are a force to be reckoned with since they seem to have built quite a reputation in their first few albums. So it seems I will have to definitely check them out soon. It is clear that Black Stone Cherry must make its comeback somehow, but I would say they are definitely on their way to being one of the big names.