Black Swamp Water

Awakening

Written by: PP on 13/11/2021 16:16:17

According to the "Awakening" press release, "new music genres are created for marketing purposes [...] the audience eventually realizes the gimmick and gets fed up with all the bands playing the same music with the lack of soul and lack of authenticity". That's a pretty ironic statement considering Black Swamp Water's latest album is among the most derivative and generic we've heard this year - they are basically copying dusty old genres and bands whose relevance in 2021 is questionable, to say the least.

"Awakening" combines Billboard Moden Rock style hard rock with elements of post-grunge and your basic Metallica worship in the guitar department. Where the first two tracks "Roll Over" and "Showdown" are more akin to material by the likes of Shinedown and perhaps Seether, large swathes of the remaining album contains southern fried guitars and rather poor singing that feels uninspired at worst, generic at best, especially when coupled with the shoddy production that leaves the instruments sound far too quiet in the mix for their own good.

Every now and then, the band captures a fairly catchy chorus like those in "Endless War" and "Better Days", but their longevity suffers from the fact that they sound like a thousand other bands playing this exact style for the duration of the last 30 years or perhaps even longer. Their problem is simple: they sound like every other alternative rock band on the radio in recent memory with absolutely zero amount of fresh ideas to warrant your attention. It's just too anonymous and forgettable to make any sort of difference in the grand scheme of things.

"Awakening" is an album that, were it given by one of the aforementioned popular bands, would constitute a career extension. The issue here is that one EP and three albums down, Black Swamp Water still doesn't appear to be able to write anything other than your dime-a-dozen hard rock. As a result, the record is as boring as it is nothing saying.

5

Download: Showdown, Endless War, Better Days
For the fans of: Shinedown, Black City, Metallica, Alter Bridge, Seether, Ozzy Osbourne
Listen: Facebook

Release date 20.08.2021
Mighty Music

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.