Black Country Communion - Afterglow
On October 29, 2012, "Afterglow", the third studio album by the band "Black Country Communion", was released in the UK and Europe. The US release followed on October 30, 2012.
There is something beguiling and charged about the word twilight glow, that deep orange light that lingers in the sky moments after the sun has already set beyond the horizon, or the heat that still pulses from the whispering embers of an industrial furnace that has known stormy days. When Anglo-American super quartet "Black Country Communion" chose to name their third album "Afterglow" in the fall of 2012, few would have estimated how much of a self-fulfilling prophecy that title would become. The mammoth project, formed three years earlier by super producer Kevin Shirley, with the aim of reviving the golden age of British heavy rock and blues of the 1970s, arrived at the starting line of its third album at the height of its creative power but torn internally between conflicting schedules, conflicting ambitions and the egos of four giants of a generation.
The connection between the legendary bassist and singer Glenn Hughes, the man who held the title of the voice of rock since his days in the band "Trapeze" and during the golden age of "Deep Purple", and the American blues-rock virtuoso Joe Bonamassa, the great drummer Jason Bonham, who proudly carries the genetic torch of his late father John Bonham of the band "Led Zeppelin", and the keyboard wizard Derek Sherinian, who grew up in the ranks of "Dream Theater", yielded two consecutive masterpiece albums in 2010 and 2011 and a mesmerizing live performance album called "Live Over Europe". However, the dizzying success turned into a trap. Hughes, who saw the band as a permanent home and an artistic peak that allowed him to unleash all the power of his emotions and soul, longed to embark on extensive world tours, while Bonamassa, whose solo career had soared in those years to the proportions of a natural phenomenon that filled halls all over the world, had difficulty making room in his busy schedule for a second band.
(Photo: Alberto Cabello)
From this bubbling pot, with the clock ticking and the tension in the air almost palpable, the band entered Revolver Recording Studios in Thousand Oaks, California, in June 2012. With Bonamassa in the midst of a grueling tour schedule, most of the writing fell to Hughes, who retreated for six months and wrote most of the album's material almost alone, with an almost existential sense of urgency. Shirley's original plan was to record the entire album in ten days, but when Bonamassa arrived at the studio completely exhausted from his travels, the producer made a bold decision and cut the recording time to five compressed, unfiltered days. The result was not a compromise, but a volcanic eruption of spontaneity, in which four superhuman musicians play in one room with almost no prior rehearsals, relying on animal instincts and telepathic chemistry.
The album opens with a mighty engine roar with the song "Big Train", a searing declaration of intent in which Hughes's distorted, groovy bass drives an unstoppable, heavy blues-rock locomotive. Sharinian layers a dirty Hammond organ over the central riff that sounds like it was pulled straight from 1971, and Bonamassa launches a cutting guitar solo that combines dizzying technical precision with pure bluesy roughness. Immediately following comes "This Is Your Time", a song born from a close collaboration between Bonham and Hughes, and relies on a monumental guitar riff and heavy, sweeping drumming that recalls the mythological power of "Led Zeppelin" with every hit on the snare, while Hughes climbs to vocal heights that defy the laws of physics and time.
The journey continues to one of the album's most beautiful melodic and psychedelic moments, the song "Midnight Sun". Here the band expands the canvas into the realms of open classic rock, with rich vocal harmonies, surprising rhythmic transitions, and a mesmerizing dialogue between Bonamassa's guitar and Sharinian's keyboards, which stands out on this album more than ever and gives the quartet's sound a brilliant progressive depth.
The energy erupts again on "Confessor," a fast, dense hard rock blast led by Hughes’s vocals and a dizzying guitar solo. The vocal duet between Hughes and Bonamassa arrives on "Cry Freedom," a classic stadium rock anthem written by all four members of the band together and combining a heavy bluesy groove with a sweeping chorus that begs to be heard under the stars.
At the heart of the album is the monumental title track "Afterglow", a six-minute symphonic and dark rock epic that is the emotional pinnacle of the entire work. The song opens with a contemplative and mystical atmosphere, wrapped in rich orchestral arrangements by Jeff Bova, before exploding into a heavy and slow riff in which Hughes bares his soul in lyrics that deal with the search for light and redemption from the darkness. It is followed by "Dandelion", a light, melodic and surprising piece with a distinct Seventies scent that brings a breath of fresh air, before the band dives into the depths again with the seven-minute epic "The Circle", a heavy and mesmerizing work where the dark riffs echo Tony Martin's time in the band "Black Sabbath" combined with the heroic melodies of "Rainbow".
The final part of the album pays tribute to the working-class heroes of England's industrial Black Country, where Hughes and Bonham grew up. The song Common Man, written by the two together, combines a moving melodic opening with a heavy and proud marching beat, followed by The Giver, where Hughes plays on acoustic guitar and delivers a masterful soul-rock ballad that gradually builds to a sweeping electric crescendo. The journey is sealed by the song Crawl, co-written with Shirley, a rough, slow and rootsy blues-rock piece that closes the album with the feeling of a band playing from the gut, without masks and without apologies, under the polished mastering of Bob Ludwig.
Upon its release, "Afterglow" received critical acclaim from leading magazines around the world, entered the top fifty on the US Billboard chart and reached number two on the UK Rock & Metal Albums chart. A few months later, in March 2013, fears were realized when tension surrounding the canceled tour led to Bonamassa's departure and the temporary disbandment of the band, leading Hughes and Bonham to form the short-lived "California Breed" before "Black Country Communion" was revived in a glorious reunion in 2017 with the album "BCCIV". Standing the test of time, "Afterglow" remains perhaps the most exposed, personal and moving album in the quartet's catalog, living proof that sometimes, precisely when the light is about to fade, the flame burns with its greatest intensity.
The band later released its fifth studio album, "V", on June 14, 2024, with the same four musicians and Kevin Shirley producing.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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