{"id":14275,"date":"2015-01-29T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T06:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14275"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:51:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:51:24","slug":"album-review-black-star-riders-the-killer-instinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14275","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Black Star Riders &#8211; The Killer Instinct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Black Star Riders &#8211; The Killer Instinct<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> February 23, 2015<br \/>\n<strong>Record Label<\/strong>: Nuclear Blast<\/p>\n<p>In 2013, Black Star Riders had hands down one of my favorite albums with All Hell Breaks Loose. With All Hell Breaks Loose, Black Star Riders really solidified themselves as a band in their own right as opposed to just a mere offshoot of Thin Lizzy. The album was a strong testament to the face that these guys were capable of being way more than just another Thin Lizzy. Like with any great debut album, once it sunk in and was out for a while, my next question was, \u201cWill they be able to put something out just as good if not better as a follow up?\u201d Well, with The Killer Instinct, I think it\u2019s safe to say that the boys totally lapped themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The opening title track kicks in with a signature Thin Lizzy harmony guitar that just sends chills up my spine. Lead vocalist\/guitarist Ricky Warwick delivers his vocals full of gritty streetwise passion and lyrics so good that I found myself hanging on to every single word he sang. \u201cBullet Blues\u201d was such a surprise as this song seemed to have Black Star Riders taking on a whole identity of their own. \u201cCharlie, I Got to Go\u201d just may be one of the best Thin Lizzy songs never written which, trust me, is a pretty awesome thing to hear. \u201cBlindsided\u201d is a dark, gritty song, country infused song that for some reason reminds me of the movie Tombstone. Once again Black Star Riders found a way to really forge their own sound on a song that is every bit as great as their more Thin Lizzy inspired material.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mv08R993G3Y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>With The Killer Instinct, I honestly feel that Black Star Riders sounds much more like their own band than they did on their debut. Song for song, The Killer Instinct shows that Black Star Riders can write some absolutely amazing songs that read like short stories of captured images in life. Every song is a story in its own and they are so well played and well written that I felt so drawn in and connected to them. There isn\u2019t a single song on this album that I would consider a dud and by the time it was over I found myself going in for another listen just to take it all in again.<\/p>\n<p>Many people will be quick to write off Black Star Riders as a mere Thin Lizzy cop off band. I mean, if you\u2019re going to hate on these guys for sounding like Thin Lizzy, go ahead but don\u2019t say that these guys can\u2019t write fucking songs. In the history of rock n\u2019 roll, it\u2019s not unusual for bands like Black Star Riders to wear their influences on their sleeves. This time around Black Star Riders have rolled up their sleeves a bit more to show us their own skin. While the ghost of Thin Lizzy is still very much present, Black Star Riders isn\u2019t using it as a crutch. Black Star Riders very much have their own two strong legs to stand on while still managing to tip their hats to the greatness of a band that inspired them to be a band in the first place. For that, I salute them wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black Star Riders &#8211; The Killer Instinct Release Date: February 23, 2015 Record Label: Nuclear Blast In 2013, Black Star Riders had hands down one of my favorite albums with All Hell Breaks Loose. With All Hell Breaks Loose, Black Star Riders really solidified themselves as a band in their own right as opposed to just a mere offshoot of Thin Lizzy. The album was a strong testament to the face that these guys were capable of being way more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[1003,594],"class_list":["post-14275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-black-star-riders","tag-thin-lizzy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19740,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14275\/revisions\/19740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}