Intro

Working

Title Fight

Black Limousine

Great Times

Riding

Journey of Rock 

Poker Face

Holy Rock'n'Roller

Running Scared

You can get it

Coming Home

Cloud no. 706

review  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo____   

Rock is mythical. There is no way to prove  this reality wrong. Rock as cousin of Metal and still living its own legend on its road.   So it is always a pleasure, also for a metalfreak like me, when, beyond any standards and stereotypes , you can listen to a band that really believes in the spirit of Rock, a band that plays a classical Rock:  melodic and heavy, resolute but elegant, with a biker attitude combined with romanticism. The Swiss Blackburn , that after years of experience, gift all their fans with this bright new full length album, are all this: incurable romantic and strong at the same time. They express with a handful of rhythm the biker American soul with the charme of the European taste. So Poker Face is pure good Hard Rock played with powerful and exact guitar riffs, lively and pentatonic. Poker Face is  not extremely massive or incredibly innovative but agreeable, persuading, competent, powerful enough , accessible, catchy yet not poppy and surely addictive . The right balance of all elements and the nice loyalty to certain schemes, that become however not  predictable, make Poker Face appeal to all Rockers with no exception. Blackburn don't get the ambition to do astonishing  things, and lyrics are interesting but not philosophical. But what Blackburn  do , is done  very well, and the production supported by Michael Bormann is really qualified and is able to let every instrument be cohesive, showing  up a   good definition. Consequently there is care about the sound and the presentation of the album in general.

Fronted by the resolute and charmante Gaby Schön, the band delivers  a big niveau of cooperation and coordination. Another remarkable thing is the positive presence of the female elements: frontwoman Gaby and bass player Corinne are 2 exponents of the fair sex and surely they cut a great  figure  in the context of the band , that, through  Andi, Smuti and Marco, provides  also a  very good work concerning drumming , rhythm guitar and precise lead solos. 

After an intro that gives us a metropolitan view of how much noisy and feverish  a big town can be, even when  it is just waking up , we start our ride with  Working, which is  highly rhythmed among  crunchy hammering riffs, vocals full of  temperaments , nice backing vocals, propelled by  the desire of going very far from the  usual daily  sphere. 

 The great call for the Marlboro country  is very clear in the rocking hammer Title Fight "are you ready to rumble Las Vegas 11 pm First round ..".  Black Limousine is another Hard Rock shot , sung by Gaby with  great force and energy. The same can be applied to Great Times that has nice romantic insertions and reminds me of Def Leppard's  style of the unforgettable Hysteria era. 

The track Riding in my opinion shows much Van Halen and Saxon 80's influence in the resonance of the rhythmics. Riding is one of the most overwhelming tracks of Poker Face and its tension to Rock'n Roll provides a danceable rhythmic too: the lead solo, that is  just a bit downtuned, combined with the general heavy progression of the riffing , the great catchiness and the  irresistible refrain, makes of Riding one of the nicest Rock songs i have  heard . The Journey of Rock is Blackburn flag , it is the song that contains their motto "The Journey of Rock begins in your heart" and is a triumph of string rhythmics. A song that wants you to get up and start jumping. 

Poker Face  is the title track and distinctive stamp with stop and go, crunchy loops, high catchiness ,  backing vocals and again that sound à la Def Leppard that drives you crazy
"Poker face 's my name , poker face i'm gonna win this game"


Interesting is also Running Scared that involves much the bass.  Coming Home is then the sweet romantic ballade, not very  elaborated but incredibly effective , in full Rod Stewart's and Brian Adam's style. It's love , so the hard rhythms are softened and Gaby's voice , engaged in a good duet,  gets sensual tonalities. 

Cloud no 706 closes with class the album and is another great song: nervous and with a refrain that  goes out from the American  schemes in order to  dive fully in a more European continental taste, it will let you appreciate the   good backing vocals and a  certain shadow of tristesse. "I need to jump off insanity- welcome back to reality"

Musically refreshing and entertaining, you can't really go wrong with Poker Face. And if you think that the journey of Rock begins in your heart, this is the band for you and the game is yours . Enjoy!... sometimes i envy you, Rockers!

Rating: 8.6/10

[ I Despair ]