With it now seeming to be particularly important to keep the 2021 Smith/Kotzen project watered in a sunny window where it can grow, the band has announced a second album, Black Light, White Noise. For a band based around a dynamic duo, the yin and yang nature of the album title is an interesting word choice for the imagery alone. So, let’s get into it.
The first track, “Muddy Water,” opens as a big blues-rock groove, so perhaps it’s possible to explain the ostensible mission of this band for anyone who might not know. While Richie does not seem to have ever been forced like a round peg into a square hole in his career, it was obvious by 1988 to 1990 that Adrian was getting a little musically claustrophobic in the land of Eddie, and songs by bass players based on books and movies. His fingerprints were all over Maiden’s 1986 Somewhere in Time album, most notably the B-sides, including “Reach Out,” which he sang, and it felt more like a Van Hagar ballad than any kind of Maiden epic about fighter planes or world conquest.
While he still had a strong and positive influence on Seventh Son, it was clear to Adrian during the No Prayer sessions that the tide was changing, and it was time for him to chart a new course. Enter Adrian Smith And Project, or “ASAP,” whose Silver and Gold record was pure pop-rock of a very impressive caliber. When this seemed to emerge at an inopportune time in rock history, he embraced more of an “Alternative” approach with some King’s X feeling when he fronted Psycho Motel. Finally, he ended up gigging with Bruce solo, which might have been the best thing, at least until the two returned to Maiden around 2000.
With all that being said, it was obvious all along that Adrian had pop, blues, and melodic classic rock DNA the whole time, and it just needed an outlet. Kotzen, who has lent his Telecaster and great big Eric Sardinas vocals to a variety of pop-rock projects as well as his own very impressive solo catalog, ended up being a kindred spirit for whatever Adrian needed to get out onto paper, and eventually into our hands as a record. With all that out of the way, the first track, much like the entire first Smith/Kotzen record, makes much more sense. The song has a King’s X “Dogman” sort of groove to it, with double vocal duties and plenty of traded guitar parts. It’s a strong start.
This album actually sort of has two title tracks, and “White Noise” is the first to appear. The song opens with a sludgy medium-high gain riff in the same vein as Young’s “Cinnamon Girl.” After a couple runs through that riff, the song leans back into a chill 4/4 blues rock verse structure, with lyrics lamenting the societal shift into social media, tethered to apps and being lost in the noise as an individual voice. After a delivery of the chorus asking if you can “hear me through the white noise,” the two gents take some turns on some ZZ Top flavored parts, with Richie demonstrating his frantic Telecaster pyrotechnics and Adrian balancing it out with some melodic vibrator-laden blues licks.
The other titular piece, “Black Light,” opens up with drums pounding into the reverb and gets pretty quickly into Richie bringing some fluid legato leads. This track is laden with 70s rock roots, perhaps most closely to the Deep Purple of Coverdale and Hughes. In fact, Richie’s vocal parts are often aligned with what we hear on Burn material, such as “Lay Down / Stay Down.” The lyrics do not seem to harbor any deep philosophical significance, but they set the stage for a cool album cover, and the guitar work on the track does all the heavy lifting anyway.
The next track, “Darkside,” has Adrian written all over it, and it’s some of his best writing since “Scars” on the previous record. It’s the same style that made “Writing on the Wall” the strongest track on Maiden’s recent Senjutsu album. The track opens with steel string acoustics and light percussion, maracas, shaker eggs, that sort of thing. The format walks the line between Southern rock and Texas SRV blues. It’s a strummy, low-gain kind of track, with a standard verse-chorus layout, seasoned judiciously with some juicy guitar parts.
“Life Unchained” opens with a wet chorus over single coil electric chords until Adrian eases in with a lonesome solo a bit like the break in “Stranger in a Strange Land.” After a minute or so of this, the song takes an unexpected turn, and a nasty old-school high-gain guitar riff starts banging out, existing someplace between Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down,” and maybe something from the respective eras of Bon Scott and Paul Di’Anno. The riff relents a bit, but the beat doesn’t, and the boys take turns delivering verses and harmonizing on the chorus. It is easy to tell which lead guitar part belongs to whom if you have listened to Richie era Mr. Big, or pretty much any good Iron Maiden record.
“Blindsided” opens with an interesting plucked series of chords alternating with open notes before the bass guitar joins in and the gain gets cranked right up. Adrian leads the way with some verse structure, and the chorus is solid enough. Impressive guitar work on the last half of the track keeps this one from being otherwise unremarkable. Not bad, mind you, just not a standout on this record.
“Wraith,” on the other hand, opens with some great dripping wet guitar effects, both pre and post-gain. Tremolo, flange, chorus, you name it. The first 9 seconds are so abstract, it could be an interesting new take on Zep’s “No Quarter.” The lead part that emerges is so cool, it could carry the song all by itself. Make no mistake, this song has one of the better choruses of the album, and the latter parts of the song have some very cool interplay between the toms and the guitars.
“Outlaw” opens with a two-part guitar lead harmony before Richie lays out the verse structure, but Adrian adds another layer of vocals before a few staccato notes of bass guitar lead into a reasonably melodic chorus. As is sometimes the case on this album, the lead guitars steal the show. With tricks ranging from tapping to legato scales, but most importantly a sense of melody and timing to complement the final chorus and last minutes of the song.
While it may seem more relaxed than the rest of the album, the final track, “Beyond the Pale,” is a seven-minute melancholy swan song to the ending. A distorted three-note chord plucked out as individual notes lays the groundwork for a slow, ponderous beat for what is largely an Adrian-driven vocal song. However, both vocalists get in on the act, especially with some harmonized parts. The mournful lead guitars take some turns and play some nice harmonies together. In a general sense, this closing track is not really there to do anything flashy or remarkable as much as to create a soulfully moving vibe to ponder.
Much like the previous self-titled Smith/Kotzen record, this one will be required listening for fans of either artist. Fans of Mr. Big and The Winery Dogs will definitely want to give it a spin. Iron Maiden fans will be hit or miss depending on the rest of their personal musical palate. Hopefully, if these two gentlemen try to do this a third time, they can take some time to really dig deep and do something novel. Most of us would rather have five or six songs that really push, and give us memorable moments and hooks, than what we have here, which is another ten songs which, although objectively solid, are a linear continuation of what we had in the first album, along a similar trajectory, with few pleasant surprises.
Musicians:
- Adrian Smith / Guitars, vocals
- Richie Kotzen / Guitars, vocals
- Julia Lage / Bass
- Bruno Valverde / Drums
Black Light, White Noise Track-list:
1. Muddy Water
2. White Noise
3. Black Light
4. Darkside
5. Life Unchained
6. Blindsided
7. Wraith
8. Heavy Weather
9. Outlaw
10. Beyond The Pale
Order Black Light, White Noise here
Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen are legends of the middle-years of rock music, and this newest collaboration is a showcase of those combined years of experience in action. It is debatable whether it surpassed their debut effort, but this remains a solid example of their work
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Songwriting
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Musicianship
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Originality
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