VOODOO HILL – Waterfall
- Posted on 18-10-2015
The third album from Italian guitarist Dario Mollo and legendary bassist/ vocalist Glenn Hughes, Voodoo Hill is an international project and "Waterfall" is another bluesy melodic hard rock album that sees these musicians reaching back into their youth for treasured hooks, exemplary musicianship, and songwriting class. We should feel fortunate in these times that a lot of musicians wish to produce as much music as possible with as many players as possible, enjoying the collaborative process.
A lot of early Whitesnake, Led Zeppelin, and early British hard rock influences (along with Glenn’s recent work in California Breed and Black Country Communion) come up in terms of the multi-octave vocals, proper chord phrasing, and pace of the record. A power ballad title track that recalls the greatness of Gary Moore, the swinging "Rattle Shake Bone" (think Aerosmith here), or straight ahead fun rocker "Eldorado" are just three of the fine cuts you will play incessantly on this close to one hour outing. The familiarity of players lends itself well to an exhilarating listening experience each and every time, and Dario mixes up some speed runs with tasteful measures- check out his work on "White Feather" for instance as it’s not all Malmsteen flash and dash, more Blackmore meets Schenker in terms of outlook.
We know that these albums take a long time to develop as professional musicians have limited time to coordinate all the songwriting and recording efforts in between their main bread and butter activities. But fortunately Voodoo Hill is well worth the wait, as "Waterfall" sounds as fresh today as it would have 35 years ago – the timeless quality of the songs is the best selling point.