Something Else! sneak peek: Black Country Communion – Afterglow (2012)

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The star-stuffed Black Country Communion is set to release its third album, called Afterglow, On October 30, 2012. Meanwhile, they’ve offered behind-the-scenes access into the sessions.

The band includes Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater), guitarist Joe Bonamassa and drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, UFO, Foreigner). Together, “there’s just a jet engine when the pieces fit in the room,” Bonamassa says, in a newly posted trailer for Afterglow. That sound is like a jet engine. It’s a rock band — it’s a really talented rock band.”

Check out three new behind-the-scenes video sneak peeks into the recording of Afterglow, below …

Hughes has said he had the longest period ever to compose, while working on Afterglow — about half a year. The first album was constructed in six weeks, he told GuitarWorld.com, then the second one was closer to four months. While Hughes has described the new project as a continuation of Black Country Communion’s first pair of recordings, he also told Artisan News that Afterglow will include new elements of darkness and drama in the lyrics.

“There are signatures that people will understand as what we are,” Hughes adds in the Afterglow trailer, “But also nuances and a quirkiness in the songs that are new to us. It’s a deeper album of music, but it does not step away from the genre of what we are.”

2010’s Black Country was Top 20 on Billboard’s hard rock album chart, followed by 2011’s 2 — which went all the way to No. 6, and topped the UK rock albums chart. Live Over Europe followed late last year. Producer Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Journey) will again helm the new album.

Here’s a look back at our recent thoughts on Black Country Communion, Joe Bonamassa and Derek Sherinian. Click through the titles for complete reviews …

JOE BONAMASSA – DRIVING TOWARDS THE DAYLIGHT (2012): It’s become a late winter/spring ritual here to survey a new Joe Bonamassa release, and the additional involvement of a fully recording, touring band (Black Country Communion) and various one-off side projects (such as last fall’s really good collaboration with soul belter Beth Hart) have barely slowed down Joe’s pace of producing new material for his own still hot solo career. This year’s offering is entitled Driving Towards The Daylight, another platter of heavy blues cast with a hard stomping rock bent. The new twist, if you will, is the introduction of other guitarists to push Bonamassa further — including Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, Brad’s son Harrison, Pat Thrall, and ex-Beach Boys sideman Blondie Chaplin.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION – 2 (2011): I can still remember a time when hard rock bands played music that had a lot of soul, meaning and depth. When the music meant more than the image. When listening to them lifted you up, not brought you down. And when you could count on a fresh new batch of music every year, and yet it didn’t sound like rush jobs. Black Country Communion reminds me of those times like no other rock band has in the last thirty odd years. Unlike most supergroups that fall short of mighty expectations, BCC delivered on the promise, provding the right vibes for anyone who loves the classic hard rock sound of the 70s, from Boston and Led Zeppelin to Hughes’ old bands Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Modestly called Black Country Communion 2, it’s an accurate label — because it could have easily been Disc 2 of the first record.

DEREK SHERINIAN – OCEANA (2011): Derek Sherinian, known for his work both with Black Country Communion and Dream Theater, is a keyboardist. It’s worth repeating, under your breath, as the forthcoming guitar god-heavy Oceana spins, each cut adding layer upon layer of heavy fusion — at times, even, sounding like math metal. So, where does that leave Sherinian? Lost in the undulating riptides of sound from these famous axe men? Trying to fit in somewhere? Not hardly. Sherinian, who made his bones playing with superstars like former Jimi Hendrix collaborator Buddy Miles, Alice Cooper and Kiss, never gets lost – even though any of those talents, in their own way, could have easily taken over the record. Instead, Sherinian is both a canny accompanist (when he needs to be), and an involving improviser.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION – BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION (2010): Given the overall pedigree, this wasn’t destined to be a blues band; it’s an Anglo-American hard rock band. Best of all, it’s the hard rock from its golden age of the 70s, when Deep Purple, Sabbath, Boston, Bon Scott-era AC/DC, etc., dominated the genre with memorable and anthemic riffs and buckets of attitude, while retaining some strains of blues and soul. If anyone is wondering if Hughes has lost any of his range, power and passion, he quickly dispatches all doubt on the calling card first track “Black Country.” This sounds in no way like a half-hearted effort by a bunch of big egos; this sounds instead like a firm declaration to the Green Days and Foo Fighters out there that the old school hard rock guys are back. With a vengeance.

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