Following the release of the excellent “Echo” EP and the stunning “Birmingham Tonight” live offering, the brilliant guitar-slinger and vocalist Damon Johnson (Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders, Alice Cooper, Slave to the System, Brother Cane) is back and this time around we are treated to a full-length album. Exciting? You bet!

“Memoirs of an Uprising” is an inspired and inspiring effort that encompasses everything that makes a record great. You want pumping riffs and punchy drums? You want infectious hooks and huge choruses too? All of that and more is to be found on this glorious 10-track output. There is a heartfelt quality to compositions such as “So Brutal” and “Shivering Shivering”. “ The utterly moving “The World Keeps Spinning Round” simply gets me every time and always brings a tear to my eye. Johnson covers the gentle and introspective as well as the explosive and face-melting stuff. The record has plenty of light and shade to it and it is truly a pleasure to listen to an album that is as varied and dynamic as this one. Things flow together seamlessly and there is depth and substance to the song material. Boasted by a fat, juicy production and stellar musicianship, Johnson and his talented cohorts have spawned an album that looks to both the past (i.e. classic 70s rock) and the future. In many ways, “Memoirs of an Uprising” does bring to mind Damon’s previous work with acts such as Black Star Riders and Slave to the System, but only in the sense that he has a unique way of writing riffs and melodies and that there are parallels to the aforementioned outfits here. This is a fresh, vibrant, and addictive record that is easily among the year’s best.

https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/damonjohnson