To listen to Joe Stump’s Tower Of Babel is to step back in time. “Days Of Thunder” takes you back to an era when Rainbow and Deep Purple ruled the world—and it’s not even attempting to hide it. The opening track, “Rules Of Silence”, makes that perfectly clear.
“Days Of Thunder” itself is proof that the first one wasn’t a fluke. More than that, it shows that yes, Stump is supreme, but Jo Amore has a voice made for this sound. That’s especially true—oddly—on the slower “Blind Is Your Eyes”, where he sings much lower and really shows his range.
Of course, to keep up with Stump you’d better be good, and the rest of the band—including keyboard player extraordinaire Mistheria—are right up there. Rock doesn’t get more classic than the grandiose-sounding “Alone In The Desert”. Power metal bands would kill for less.
You could cheerfully think that these were covers, but stuff like “In The Heat Of The Night” is elevated by the solos—and these are not short and sharp, either. “Sacrifice” does its thing for almost six minutes and is probably the heaviest thing here.
Stump is wonderfully eerie on “Black Knight’s Prelude”, worthy of his hero Gary Moore, in fact, while the soaring and roaring epic “Trust Me” might well be the highlight. It ends with “The Princess”, which lets its hair down for a boogie as each member gets a spot in the limelight.
Is this going to change your life? No. Is it original? Absolutely not. Does that matter? Not a jot.
The fact is that Joe Stump’s Tower Of Babel’s “Days Of Thunder” is supremely good and supremely polished hard rock—and it was meant to be nothing else. Job done.
Rating: 8/10
