Black Country Communion: Afterglow

The new album comes out on October 29. Anyone who is a fan of Mk III and IV Deep Purple should definitely give the band a listen if you haven't already done so. Their first two studio albums are excellent.

Album trailer:



Lineup:

Glenn Hughes - Vocals, Bass
Jason Bonham - Drums
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards
Joe Bonamassa - Guitar

Cool band. I own their sophomore album. I can say it's good stuff, but it does get tired after a while. I feel like I've heard all of this before on albums from the early to mid 70's.

Andy wrote:

Cool band. I own their sophomore album. I can say it's good stuff, but it does get tired after a while. I feel like I've heard all of this before on albums from the early to mid 70's.

I like their second album more. It's catchier and more identifiable than the debut. 'Cold' is a great track.

I read an interview with Glenn Hughes this morning, he indicated that this will most likely be the last album because of their inability to tour. He doesn't want to waste time with a group if they aren't able to take it on the road regularly, so he will be stepping out after this.

That's too bad I'm really looking forward to this release too! They played a show in LA and I missed it!!! Was kicking myself! Hope they do one more!

I'll pick this one up too. I've enjoyed their previous 2 releases. Shame they're imploding, but they've cranked out 3 studio albums and a live release in a shorter amount of time it takes some bands to assemble an ep.

Now that they're stating to exchange pissy tweets, I'd say this band is heading towards an end...

Quote :

The feud between Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa over the future of Black Country Communion has gone public, with the pair indulging in a brief exchange on Twitter.

The supergroup’s future has been in doubt since frontman Hughes warned he was ready to quit, saying he was frustrated with Bonamassa’s solo career meaning they couldn’t tour their new album, Afterglow.

The former Deep Purple and Black Sabbath man also said he’d been left with the main songwriting chores for the record because Bonamassa was unavailable.

Last week they announced a one-off show in England for January, which some believed was a make-or-break moment – then cancelled it soon after pre-sale tickets had become available.

In the absence of an official explanation, producer Kevin Shirley – who masterminded the union of Hughes, Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian – said: “I like to leave these things alone, but I feel an apology is in order. When you’re thrown a lifeline, it doesn’t serve you to steal the rope! And tweeting doesn’t make it history, or true. Your call will be answered – please enjoy the music…”

Last night bluesman Bonamassa, who’s just released a video for his song Dislocated Boy, tweeted: “I am very sorry about the Black Country Communion canceled gig. But principle still stands for something in 2012. I ready to move on.”

Hughes, who will tonight appear at the Jim Marshall tribute show in London’s Wembley Arena, retweeted the comment and added: “Me too.” Earlier, during rehearsals for the show with Andy Fraser and Yngwie Malmsteen, he’d tweeted: “Been a rough week.”

BCC formed in 2009 at Shirley’s suggestion and released their debut album the following year.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'll pick this one up too. I've enjoyed their previous 2 releases. Shame they're imploding, but they've cranked out 3 studio albums and a live release in a shorter amount of time it takes some bands to assemble an ep.

Now that they're stating to exchange pissy tweets, I'd say this band is heading towards an end...

Quote :

The feud between Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa over the future of Black Country Communion has gone public, with the pair indulging in a brief exchange on Twitter.

The supergroup’s future has been in doubt since frontman Hughes warned he was ready to quit, saying he was frustrated with Bonamassa’s solo career meaning they couldn’t tour their new album, Afterglow.

The former Deep Purple and Black Sabbath man also said he’d been left with the main songwriting chores for the record because Bonamassa was unavailable.

Last week they announced a one-off show in England for January, which some believed was a make-or-break moment – then cancelled it soon after pre-sale tickets had become available.

In the absence of an official explanation, producer Kevin Shirley – who masterminded the union of Hughes, Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian – said: “I like to leave these things alone, but I feel an apology is in order. When you’re thrown a lifeline, it doesn’t serve you to steal the rope! And tweeting doesn’t make it history, or true. Your call will be answered – please enjoy the music…”

Last night bluesman Bonamassa, who’s just released a video for his song Dislocated Boy, tweeted: “I am very sorry about the Black Country Communion canceled gig. But principle still stands for something in 2012. I ready to move on.”

Hughes, who will tonight appear at the Jim Marshall tribute show in London’s Wembley Arena, retweeted the comment and added: “Me too.” Earlier, during rehearsals for the show with Andy Fraser and Yngwie Malmsteen, he’d tweeted: “Been a rough week.”

BCC formed in 2009 at Shirley’s suggestion and released their debut album the following year.

This is a prime example of media-induced bull$h!+. Their Tweets are very vague and ultimately meaningless. And Hughes did not mention anyone's name in his statement about BCC possibly being over becuase he wants to tour more. He made a statement, and the MEDIA turned it into a "feud" and other such drama. The MEDIA makes it sound like Hughes came out and said "THAT DAMN JOE!!! I WANT TO TOUR BUT HIS STUPID SOLO CAREER IS IN THE WAY! SCREW HIM AND HIS GUITAR!! IT'S ALL HIS FAULT!! I QUIT!!"

So stupid...

I dunno. I'm going with the "where there's smoke, there's fire" kinda theory. Could the media be hyping it up?, Sure. It's what they do. But Glenn's been pretty vocal recently...

Quote :

Afterglow, due out in October, will be their third record in two years. But the frontman fears it could be their swan song because of scheduling issues, particularly those of blues guitar virtuoso Bonamassa.

Hughes tells ABC News: “I hate to break it to you, but it just may be the last album – I need to be in a band that tours on a regular basis.

“If I had a magic wand I’d wave it over everybody’s head and go, ‘Hey, you guys, we’re going to go and do 200 shows and we’re going to be a huge rock’n'roll band globally.’”

But he adds: “It’s not gonna happen.”

He’d referred to scheduling problems in the past, saying Bonamassa’s limited availability had left him in charge of main songwriting duties. But that presented its own opportunity.

Hughes explains: “I figured that is this was to be the last album, I needed to come up with some pretty wild and epic tracks. I’m really proud of this album.”

I'm certainly not gonna lose any sleep over it if they call it a day. On the other hand, if in-fighting causes tension and forces the members to work harder to create decent tunes, I'm all for it. Some of the best music is created through ego-busting and one-up-manship.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I dunno. I'm going with the "where there's smoke, there's fire" kinda theory. Could the media be hyping it up?, Sure. It's what they do. But Glenn's been pretty vocal recently...

Quote :

Afterglow, due out in October, will be their third record in two years. But the frontman fears it could be their swan song because of scheduling issues, particularly those of blues guitar virtuoso Bonamassa.

Hughes tells ABC News: “I hate to break it to you, but it just may be the last album – I need to be in a band that tours on a regular basis.

“If I had a magic wand I’d wave it over everybody’s head and go, ‘Hey, you guys, we’re going to go and do 200 shows and we’re going to be a huge rock’n'roll band globally.’”

But he adds: “It’s not gonna happen.”

He’d referred to scheduling problems in the past, saying Bonamassa’s limited availability had left him in charge of main songwriting duties. But that presented its own opportunity.

Hughes explains: “I figured that is this was to be the last album, I needed to come up with some pretty wild and epic tracks. I’m really proud of this album.”

I'm certainly not gonna lose any sleep over it if they call it a day. On the other hand, if in-fighting causes tension and forces the members to work harder to create decent tunes, I'm all for it. Some of the best music is created through ego-busting and one-up-manship.

Yeah, that was the statement from Hughes I was referring to...there's nothing "feud" like in that at all...he's simply making a statement.

Quote :

Without going into the comings and goings of all this nonsense.. I am sorry it all has come to this point that the gig has been cancelled .. I love all the guys in BCC and love making music with them. But at this point in our lives it doesn't seem in the cards so to speak. I will always consider each of them a dear friend and the door is always open at least from my point of view. I just can't do it at this point with all the things that been said unfairly about me and my intentions toward this band.. It would not be an honest show for me and I will not take the money from the fans in that fashion. For 23 years I have always maintained that code... I will not compromise that deal I made with you the fans and myself so many years ago whether its 1 or 100,000 people in the audience... Thank you for understanding .. And I totally understand if you do not by the way. Im just one member of this band of five and very disappointed in the way this has played out over the past two months. With that said I will not allow my reputation that I worked 25 years to establish to be compromised by someone who has the microphone and a agenda.. This will be the last I will speak of this event.. I won't get into the discussion and want to put this all behind me for I see it as a black eye on my career. I just really felt I owed you all somewhat of explanation..

You are all the best thank you again..
Joe Bonamassa

...

Sorry... I need to clarify.. I love the BCC part of my career... I regard the past two months and the cancelation as a black eye ... Not how I wanted it to go.

Joe B

I wonder if they'd carry on with a new guitarist or just call it a day?

It looks like they're calling it a day, unfortunately.

Glenn's working on a new band/project featuring collaborations with different musicians. I can't find a link, but I'm 99% certain he mentioned it on his Twitter account a few weeks ago before he removed several of his tweets.

It's a shame. But at least we got 3 good albums out of them. Well, 2 so far. Hope Afterglow holds up.

Seems like you'd have the touring part worked out before getting together. I wonder if this was going to be a one off and did so well it continued?

Dark Horseman wrote:

Seems like you'd have the touring part worked out before getting together. I wonder if this was going to be a one off and did so well it continued?

Well, if Joe Bonnamassa's personal promotional and hype-generator magazine Classic Rock is to be believed, the dude is the hardest working man in music. He puts out an album every other week.

I wonder too if his solo career finally hit big and he wants to concentrate on that?

Really sorry this is their last album. Imo it's their best with songs like Midnight Sun and Common man being top notch.

These guys bang out an album in a week. A week! I think they said the longest was like 9 days and they had 12 booked. It's not like they do pre-production for a year, then spend another year in the studio. It's a week!

They'll do another one. I am convinced that all this "drama" was a ploy to get people talking about BCC for a month leading up to the album coming out last week. It's marketing bull$h!+.

Eyesore wrote:

These guys bang out an album in a week. A week! I think they said the longest was like 9 days and they had 12 booked. It's not like they do pre-production for a year, then spend another year in the studio. It's a week!

Many of the greatest albums in history were recorded in very short periods of time, there is absolutely no sense in taking a year to record an album for an established band (I'm talking to you dunderheads in Metallica). I can understand taking a long time if you are using a bunch of session musicians and recording in multiple studios in multiple cities...but most hard rock bands aren't doing that.

The debut Black Sabbath album was recorded in 8 hours, mixed in 4 hours. Simple. Perfect. Timeless.

S.D. wrote:

Eyesore wrote:

These guys bang out an album in a week. A week! I think they said the longest was like 9 days and they had 12 booked. It's not like they do pre-production for a year, then spend another year in the studio. It's a week!

Many of the greatest albums in history were recorded in very short periods of time, there is absolutely no sense in taking a year to record an album for an established band (I'm talking to you dunderheads in Metallica). I can understand taking a long time if you are using a bunch of session musicians and recording in multiple studios in multiple cities...but most hard rock bands aren't doing that.

The debut Black Sabbath album was recorded in 8 hours, mixed in 4 hours. Simple. Perfect. Timeless.

Oh, I know. I was basically saying this because it's not like BCC invested an absurd amount of time on these albums that would justify the kind of in-fighting, whether real or not, that is going on. Had they all spent a year or more of their lives writing and recording, then I could understand someone being really upset they can't get out there and heavily tour. But they spend a week together.

Either way, I totally agree with you. It cracks me up when a band like Linkin Park talks about spending a year in pre-production and another year recording an album, and somehow they only manage to put out 30 minutes of music that I could have written in a weekend.

Quote :

They'll do another one. I am convinced that all this "drama" was a ploy to get people talking about BCC for a month leading up to the album coming out last week. It's marketing bull$h!+.

Well, it worked.

Quote :

Oh, I know. I was basically saying this because it's not like BCC invested an absurd amount of time on these albums that would justify the kind of in-fighting, whether real or not, that is going on. Had they all spent a year or more of their lives writing and recording, then I could understand someone being really upset they can't get out there and heavily tour. But they spend a week together.

It's been my understanding that the problems arose because they weren't around each other enough. Glenn claims that Joe Bonna-whatever didn't contribute much on this album and doesn't want to tour because he's too busy with his own albums and touring for them. Seems like all of the members have other projects going on and noone wants to concentrate soley on BCC.

Still need to pick up Afterglow. I like the other 2 albums well enough.

Dark Horseman wrote:

Quote :

They'll do another one. I am convinced that all this "drama" was a ploy to get people talking about BCC for a month leading up to the album coming out last week. It's marketing bull$h!+.

Well, it worked.

Exactly.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Quote :

Oh, I know. I was basically saying this because it's not like BCC invested an absurd amount of time on these albums that would justify the kind of in-fighting, whether real or not, that is going on. Had they all spent a year or more of their lives writing and recording, then I could understand someone being really upset they can't get out there and heavily tour. But they spend a week together.

It's been my understanding that the problems arose because they weren't around each other enough. Glenn claims that Joe Bonna-whatever didn't contribute much on this album and doesn't want to tour because he's too busy with his own albums and touring for them. Seems like all of the members have other projects going on and noone wants to concentrate soley on BCC.

Still need to pick up Afterglow. I like the other 2 albums well enough.

I don't know. Comparing credits on the first one and Afterglow, it looks the same to me. Bonamassa and the other guys co-wrote most of the tunes, while Hughes penned most of the rest alone. In terms of the music, anyway. Hell, Bonham even takes sole credit to the music on "Common Man," from the new one.