Nathan and the boys continue their unstoppable rise
When your soundbite is this: “The best British band since Led Zeppelin” then it can go one of two ways. First it could be a millstone which you never shake off. The long road of rock n roll is, after all, paved with umpteen bands that were the Next Big Thing.
Or, assuming that the aforementioned soundbite came from Kevin Shirley, producer to Led Zep, Aerosmith, Bonamassa and Christ knows who else, it might actually mean something.
If he also produced your record, then it probably is safe to assume they have some idea what they are talking about.
And to be clear, even ignoring the obvious hyperbole in that statement, it needs to be said that Inglorious are incredible.
They proved that with their debut record. Calmly debunking any notion that they were somehow a “manufactured” band (whatever that means) along the way, by backing it up with some incredible live performances which proved Nathan James could actually sing like that, and his bandmates could really, really play.
Now, barely 15 months after along comes “II” and if that might indicate they had some ideas sparking off them, then the 12 songs on it are some of the finest classic rock unleashed in 2017.
Recorded with all the players in the same room in an old-school style, with no overdubs, autotune or click tracks “II” crackles with a vibrancy that only the best albums can ever manage.
“I Don’t Need Your Loving” swaggers like a big brother playing football with a tiny sibling. It knows it’s better than anything else out there and proving it is effortless.
Likewise, “Taking The Blame” has a kind of urgency that early Whitesnake used to muster (not for nothing did Glenn Hughes get James onstage to sing David Coverdale’s parts on Deep Purple’s “Burn” on his recent UK tour), while “Tell Me Why” reveals an even more arena rock hook than they managed before.
Everything here slams and on work like the quite brilliant highlight “Read All About It” they really are so far ahead of their obvious peers in the young hard rock pack, it is frankly frightening.
The bluesy ballad “A Change Is Coming” showcases their other side. “Making Me Pay” is the kind of thing that Joe Bonamassa was doing on “Blues Of Desperation” and Shirley – knob twiddler on both – has found his trademark sound here.
Nothing here is too long. Deliberately in tune with old school vibe, perhaps, you could get this on one side of a 90-minute cassette back in the day. One of the shortest, “Hell Or High Water” is a real rabble rouser and “No Good For You” has a kind of Def Leppard circa “Pyromania” vibe and an unapologetic air – as well as some fine lead work from Andreas Erkisson.
A record with nothing that approaches a dip in quality – even the “deep cuts” like “I Got A Feeling” would be stand-outs elsewhere – has a veer into something a touch darker on “Black Magic”, which is counterbalanced superbly by the ballad “Faraway”, which almost approaches stripped down – but can’t resist a crescendo. It wouldn’t be Inglorious if it was demur, after all.
Ending with the superb “High Class Woman” which uses harmony vocals to give it an epic feel – and adds a chorus of the mighty variety to give you something to remember it by – “II” proves the debut was no flash in the pan, and it also proves that basically nothing can stop them. As a concluding line of our review of last year’s album, MV wrote this: “Inglorious, coming to a stadium near you about 2026.” We might have been wrong there. It is going to happen way sooner than that.
Rating 9.5/10
