Voodoo Nation
is the fourth album from California's
Supersonic Blues Machine
and the second with British vocalist/guitarist
Kris Barras
. Gorgeously produced by bassist
Fabrizio Grossi
, it balances gritty, even incendiary playing with polished behind-the-boards technique. Like its predecessors, the 12-song set features
SBM
's now trademark bumper crop of guest spots from top-shelf guitar slingers, including
Sonny Landreth
,
Charlie Starr
(
Blackberry Smoke
),
Eric Gales
Joe Louis Walker
Ana Popovic
Kirk Fletcher
King Solomon Hicks
, and
Josh Smith
.
deliver the first three tracks and the title number on their own. It's an opportunity to assess their studio sound with
Barras
, who joined just before 2019's
Road Chronicles: Live!
In opening track "Money," blues-tinged hard-rocking guitars are framed in edgy rhythm & blues and gospel.
Kenny Aronoff
's funky backbeat drives a call-and-response delivery between
and a layered backing chorus by
Francis Benitez
and
Andrea Grossi-Benitez
Alex Alessandroni, Jr.
(son of film composer and arranger
Alessandro Alessandroni
) lends a pumping piano and functions as a fourth member here. "Coming Thru" is filthy blues-funk, underscored by guest
Fabio "Il Puma" Treves
on harmonica amid squalling guitars and basses. Harlem blues guitar god
assists on the spiky,
Robin Trower
-esque "You and Me." On the bridge and refrain,
and the chorus offer a militant insistence that recalls
Pink Floyd
's chorale delivered on
The Wall
Landreth
brings his iconic slide guitar to "8 Ball Lucy," the set's first single. With swampy, spooky interplay between his slide, electric piano, and a filthy bass line, it shifts from darkly hued blues-rock to reggae in the refrain.
fills and accents each line, embellishes cadences, and delivers a thoroughly unhinged solo.
Walker
appears on "Is It All" playing guitar and sharing lead vocals with
. A soul-rocker, it simultaneously channels the early
Isley Brothers
(the timbre in
's voice is remarkably similar to
Ron Isley
's),
Mandrill
Curtis Mayfield
. The backing chorus resonates with conviction.
Popovic
's performance on "Do It Again" reflects her hard-rocking blues-metal pedigree and explodes with her wiry, overdriven solo. "I Will Let Go" offers the
Albert King
-influenced guitar stylings of Compton's
. His deeply melodic style weds insistent, soul-drenched fills to
' punchy blues-rock vamp. The twinning of lead guitar and B-3 under
' whiskey vocal is transcendent. The title track is a nasty, riff-driven rocker straddling blues and funk as it roars and wrangles over seven minutes. Closer "All Our Love" with
Starr
uses Americana as a jumping-off point, but punches and staggers its way toward biting blues roots rock.
reveals that
's now de rigueur guest lists aren't a gimmick -- they're an aesthetic. It offers musical diversity, expanding their group's sonic and stylistic palette exponentially. Their guests don't carry the proceedings -- all songs were written by
-- but embellish the trio's manifold approach to rhythm, harmony, texture, and dynamic. As such,
is their finest outing to date. ~ Thom Jurek