Black Country Communion
's self-titled debut met with so much critical and, in some markets, even commercial success that the multi-talented super-quartet wasted little time -- an almost worrisomely short amount of time, in fact -- before getting to work on this sophomore follow-up. But, thankfully, striking while the iron was hot did not equate with going through the motions on 2011's unassumingly named
2
; nor, for that matter, did it entail the sort of battle between mega-egos that is so common to these superstar arrangements. Rather, while the smart money had
BCC
pegged as vocalist/bassist
Glenn Hughes
' ship to captain,
BCC2
actually sounds like the baby of drummer
Jason Bonham
, of all people, because so many of its songs show no qualms about getting the "
Led
" out, if you catch the meaning. This modus operandi quickly becomes self-evident in
Derek Sherinian
's "Kashmir"-like keyboard orchestrations for "Man in the Middle" and "Save Me," guitarist
Joe Bonamassa
's
Jimmy Page
-inspired power riffs and knotty licks for "Smokestack Woman" and "I Can See Your Spirit," not to mention the all-purpose "Battle of Evermore" rewrite on steroids that is "The Battle for Hadrian's Wall." Far from descending into a pale imitation like, say, a
Kingdom Come
or late-'80s
Whitesnake
, however,
's offerings rise above and fly true thanks to the unimpeachable pedigree and recognizable musical personalities of all involved here. It's also highly entertaining to hear
Hughes
-- he of
Deep Purple
MKIII and sporadic collaborations with
Black Sabbath
Tony Iommi
-- getting all cozy with the third and final cornerstone of the legendary British heavy metal axis. And of course there's much more to
than pundit-sanctioned
Zep
worship. Urgent opener "The Outsider" delivers heavy rock so pure that its ingredients are already etched in the public domain by now; "An Ordinary Son" blends
Bonamassa
's blues,
' soul, and
Sherinian
's churchy Hammond organ into a heavenly gospel rocker; and the slow-burning epic "Little Secret" (plus, to a lesser degree, the distinctly somber "Cold") stretches the expressive breadth of
' voice and
's six-string to both their most subtle and bombastic extremes, resulting in an exquisite display of pent-up tension and grateful release. As a result,
arguably tops its worthy predecessor as a balanced song set while, admittedly, lacking any singles as striking as
BCC1
's "One Last Soul" or even "Black Country," none of which should bother the last living album consumers out there, who obviously make up the vast majority of the band's constituents. And here's hoping
can keep the ball rolling into album number three.... ~ Eduardo Rivadavia