Captain
Black Beard from Stockholm, Sweden
is back with their follow-up album to
the strong self-titled debut disc from
2011. Same members and the same groovy
melodic hard rock. Sakaria Björklund
sings with a confident voice and he is
the perfect front man. I must admit that
I became quite skeptical when I listened
to the first song 'Please Come Home',
which is probably the weakest song on the
whole album, although Bruce Kulick
guest appears. Usually 99% of
the bands put their singles or strongest
songs as number 1.
On the next track 'Somebody'
things are getting more stable and the
melodic rock flows into my ears, a
really nice track. Tommy Denander's magic
guitars lift the song up quite well. But
when 'New York City' kicks off, my
blood pressure raises. This is a blasting
rock track. Dusty, groovy rock n roll
and amazing guitars and 'NYC' is one of
the top song on 'Before Plastic'. In the
calmer and smoother song 'Bad Girl'
the AOR influences are bigger and the hard
rock corners are a bit more gentle and
shock-friendly. The bluesy and half
funky rock track 'Music Man' is also one
of my favourites on this album. I get
'Electric Boys' in my mind when I listen to this
one.
The coolest and two of the best tracks
are the mega catchy 'Aiming For
Love' and 'Keep On Drivi'n' with hefty vocals
and appealing melodies. 'Shout' is a fast one and it
has good glam metal riffing within. This track is
the heaviest and the shortest on the entire disc.
'Life's What You Make It' smokes of 70's classic
hard rock and has some
fancy guitar hooks.
Captain Black Beard plays rock n
roll music that fits on the live stage,
because their energy is hard to deliver
on a shiny disc, like 'Takin' You Out'
which have potential to be a live
favourite. 'Before Plastic' ends with
the epic 'Listen Up'.
Various tempos and rock genres are mixed up
in this shiny gem. From slow, calm
ballad moods to heavy rocking tones and Mr. Denander is showing off his guitar
skills here and there.
It's often very hard to make the second
album better than the debut, but this sequel is good
and my overall score stays in the middle Rock Solid
level. A bit lame in the beginning of the album, but
a super stiff middle section and several
strong ending songs makes me quite
happy.
I will keep my eye on these guys
in the future.
It's not a question if they
will break big, it's a more a question
of when.........
Line up:
Sakaria Björklund - vocals/guitar
Victor Högberg - drums
Robert Majd - bass
Christian Ek - guitar
Guest lead guitar:
Bruce Kulick (track 1)
Mats Karlsson (track 7)
Tommy Denander (track 2, 8, 11)
