A second helping

Where their first album was full on heavy rocking all the way through, F&S shows a maturing style. 'Blind Man' seems to flow naturally on from the first album and 'Please Come In' has an opening worthy of Led Zep, but it softens as the track goes on. 'Reverend Wrinkle' is a great track and pulls the album into the realms of heavy metal. 'Soulcreek' on the other hand is much more mainstream and has a Yeah Yeah sing-along chorus. 'Things My Father Said' is a soft-rock, Aerosmith ballad moment, and to me it sums up the variety of styles that BSC can achieve without compromising their under-lying Southern rock foundation. Track six is 'The Bitter End', which, though it ebbs and flows, is a full on metal track with fantastic vocals and frantic drumming.

'Long Sleeves' is quite heavy but has a really melodic chorus, Don’t ask me why / I’ve seen children die / Watched men take their lives / I’ve seen woman cry / My momma always said to wear long sleeves. Brilliant riffs. 'Peace is Free' is probably my current favourite track, a real Embrace-style anthem. This is probably the song most likely to be a single, being the most Nickleback in style. 'Devil’s Queen' really has my head nodding up and down. Full on hard rockin’ riffs with a bit of voodoo harmonica, a great chorus, and a superb guitar solo that should gone on for at least another ten minutes. Track ten is 'The Key' and they must have been on the wacky baccy when composing the lyrics for this one. A spooky, metal riff opens into a simple guitar solo which then leads into distorted starting vocals. The chorus is a bit Lunca Coil, it’s that heavy. But the middle eight is real Southern rock with tambourine tapping and howling harmonica before the weird vocals come in again. Someone, please, help me find the key.

'You' features Corey Taylor-like vocals in another radio-friendly ballad. Very mellow and a great sing-along chorus. It takes true love to stand the test of time. And it takes you babe to make me smile. OK, it sounds cheesy but it really works. 'Sunrise' yanks us back to the hard rock/metal sound with alternating loud/soft passages. This is slightly spoilt by switching to a reggae-style which is a bit incongruous and light-weight against the rock riffs. This is probably the weakest song on the album. Shame. The final track is 'Ghost of Floyd Collins'. This opens with cawing crows and a hill-billy talk over before a wave of heavy drumming and big rock riffs sweep us into the story. The lyrics are a bit vague, only hinting at a story that never really gets told. Great guitar playing, lovely time shifts, mammoth riffs, spot on drumming, fantastic bass line and it all ends in a stony silence, book-ended by the crows.