{"id":39817,"date":"2014-04-21T11:44:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T16:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=39817"},"modified":"2014-04-22T16:23:29","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T21:23:29","slug":"captain-black-beard-before-plastic-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/captain-black-beard-before-plastic-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain Black Beard | Before Plastic<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"CaptainCaptain Black Beard seems to \u201chave it all,\u201d a fancy band name, a team of solid musicians, the renowned producers to work with, a critically acclaimed debut album \u2026 The only task they have to face now with their sophomore effort entitled Before Plastic is to prove their early success wasn\u2019t accidental. To prove all the rave reviews right, the Swedes gathered in the studio together with some impressive guests on board \u2013 Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS, Grand Funk Railroad, Union), Tommy Denander (Imperia, Radioactive) and Mats Karlsson (220 Volt, The Summit). The expectations are high \u2013 will they meet them?<\/p>\n

The first few tracks the album starts with are well-crafted and pleasurable to listen, but something\u2019s missing there. Funnily enough, these are the tracks which two important big names of the genre contributed to; a dynamic modern-day rocker \u201cPlease Come Home\u201d features Bruce Kulick playing a guitar solo in his trademark style, while in a melodic AOR-ish mid-tempo \u201cSomebody,\u201d there\u2019s a guest appearance of Tommy Denander. There\u2019s an interesting riff that leads a fast-paced \u201cNew York City\u201d and at times, \u201cBad Girl\u201d may remind a listener of more mellow moments of the \u201880s-era KISS, especially in terms of vocals. Up to this point, the album sounds convincing, but it\u2019s far from the expected brilliance.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s about the fifth track when things start to get really interesting. The great vocal harmonies and bluesy vibes of \u201cMusic Man\u201d prove that the best is yet to come \u2013 as it seems, the first few tracks were only a warm-up in comparison to what comes next. \u201cAiming For Love\u201d is one of the album\u2019s highlights with its combination of simple-yet-hooky guitar riff and infectious chorus. It\u2019s the type of an ultimate hit song you can find on Outloud or Reckless Love releases. \u201cKeep On Drivin\u201d is yet another bluesy track with dynamic rhythm section and a brilliant groovy guitar riff. As for the eight track \u201cShout\u201d \u2013 an aggressive yet clich\u00e9d group chant (\u201cShout!\u201d) certainly reminds one of \u201csomething\u201d, and it doesn\u2019t take too long to figure out the title of classic glam metal anthem it\u2019s coming from\u2026 does it? The fast-paced track with machine-gun riffs is the heaviest on the album. <\/p>\n

On Before Plastic<\/em>, there is also a plenty of place for typical groovy rock anthems, such as \u201cLife’s What You Make It\u201d and \u201cTakin\u2019 You Out.\u201d The final track is \u201cListen Up\u201d \u2013 the tempo of which varies from ballad-esque verses to powerful, straightforward choruses, so that in the end it turns out that there\u2019s more to what initially seemed to be just a clich\u00e9d rock ballad. Some equilibristic guitar parts towards the end of the track prove there is more to Captain Black Beard than meets the eye (or ear), too.<\/p>\n

Although a couple of opening tracks on Before Plastic are \u201conly\u201d satisfactory, a few subsequent gems should convince even the most skeptical listeners that what Captain Black Beard delivered with their sophomore release overall is actually very good. Variety, catchiness and very solid performance of the majority of songs on the album are the strong assets to its entirety, the list of guest musicians being understandably impressive and their contribution to the album noticeable. And as for all the enthusiastic reviews of their first album \u2013 with its follow-up Captain Black Beard prove they\u2019re not a one-hit-wonder and they\u2019re not about to lower the tone altogether; they still have a lot of potential and they\u2019re still worth the attention of fans of melodic hard rock genre. Recommended.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nSakaria Bj\u00f6rklund – vocals\/guitar
\nVictor H\u00f6gberg – drums
\nRobert Majd – bass
\nChristian Ek – guitar<\/p>\n

Tracklist:
\n 1. Please Come Home
\n 2. Somebody
\n 3. New York City
\n 4. Bad Girl
\n 5. Music Man
\n 6. Aiming For Love
\n 7. Keep On Drivin\u2019
\n 8. Shout
\n 9. Life\u2019s What You Make It
\n 10. Takin\u2019 You Out
\n 11. Listen Up<\/p>\n

Label: Dead End Exit Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.captainblackbeard.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Columnist — Captain Black Beard seems to \u201chave it all,\u201d a fancy band name, a team of solid musicians, the renowned producers to work with, a critically acclaimed debut album \u2026 […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9174,9173,2317,9175,2847],"class_list":{"0":"post-39817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-before-plastic","9":"tag-captain-black-beard","10":"tag-cd-review","11":"tag-dead-end-exit-records","12":"tag-melodic-hard-rock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}