Blindside Blues Band - Journey To The Stars (2016)

The partnership between Mike Onesko (Mike Onesko's Guitar Army) and Martin J Andersen (Blindstone), surely must be one of the most potent guitar combinations in rock. Both have superb albums to their name outside of Blindside Blues Band, however bring them together and the sparks truly begin to fly. Mining deep into what makes the blues the hard hitting, emotion juggling beast it is, the pair coax out some of the most scintillating riffs and solos, all the while realising that what makes great music is basing all the guitar wizardry round great songs. Journey To The Stars (an album neatly bookended by 50s sci-fi TV sounds) is jam ram packed with 'em, "Fly On High" comes into being on the back of an intense train-rolling riff and simply ramps things up from there; and talking of keeping things firmly on track, "Freight Train" comes blazing out of the speakers with fretboard horns wailing and the rhythmical thunder (provided by ex-Badlands, Racer X drummer Jeff Martin and bassist Steve Evans) potently ploughing through everything in its path. Add in a solo that reminds of that most underrated of guitar masters, Dave Meniketti of Y&T, and what's not to love? "Rolling Down The Highway" moves things from the tracks to the road, the pace picked up further as the ZZ Top vibe comes down on this convertible time machine to whisk you back to a day when blues based heavy rock ruled (as it still should).

Onesko is in full, fine voice, his deep holler the perfect fit for sounds as vibrant and authentic as these, the manner in which he adds a little bit of spice to the already burning "Smokehouse Row" absolutely masterful. However you could turn to "I'm On Fire", "Calling My Name", "Shadow In My Dreams" or any other track for that matter, to prove that his vocal prowess is no one off. Cleverly after all the high octane guitar infused goodness ".79 Cent Blues" closes the album out with confirmation (as if we needed it) that Blindside Blues Band can serve up deeply intense heart tugging blues as well. It may be a slightly low key conclusion to an album that rocks for all it's worth, however, just as all the best bands do, BBB know that the best way to hit hard is to know when not to and ".79..." is a prime example of exactly that.
Blindside Blues Band never disappoint and with Journey To The Stars they've blasted another firecracker of an album into orbit.