Time: 59:11
File: Flac
Released: 2019
Styles: Blues-rock
Art: Front
1. Up In Smoke ( 6:48)
2. Break Me Down ( 3:18)
3. Ghosts ( 5:55)
4. The Root Of All Evil ( 7:14)
5. Soulbreaker ( 3:50)
6. Too Far To Fall ( 4:02)
7. Archangel ( 5:31)
8. The Big Picture ( 3:56)
9. Under The Gun ( 5:12)
10. One More Chance ( 3:20)
11. Exile (10:00)
In a considerably short time, the British blues rock band Catfish has already made quite an impression. It is therefore not for nothing that this band has been nominated five times at the British Blues Awards.
Catfish debuted in 2015 with the album So Many Roads, followed by the EP When BB Sings The Blues, a tribute to B.B. King. Their long-awaited second album 'Broken Man' was released in early 2018. Both albums reached #1 on the IBBA Blues Airplay Chart.
And now Matt Long (vocals, guitar), Paul Long (vocals, keys), Adam Pyke (bass) and Kevin Yates (drums) are ready for their third album. On that album, the band proves that they can do more than just produce hard blues rock.
By the way, that hard blues rock still sounds very nice! Invariably provided with a 70's Classic Rock sound in which you can encounter bands such as Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and Jimi Hendrix.
Photo Review: Catfish - Burning Bridges
After a menacing synthesizer intro, the album opens with the raw funky blues rock of Up In Smoke. A song with a heavy groove, raw bluesy vocals, a nice old-fashioned throbbing organ and rock-hard guitar work. Then follows the full-throttle pumping rocker Break Me Down, which has a punky energy. This song has that typical British blues rock sound a la The Hoax. Matt fires another vicious cutting solo at us in this song.
Ghosts is one of the resting points on this album. An atmospheric ballad with atmospheric piano work and a warm sliding guitar sound. That is then followed by the super filthy heavy guitar riffs in The Roots Of All Evil. A log pumping song with a clear 70's rock sound.
Soulbreaker is a hypnotic, almost Nathaniel Ratecliff-esque, pounding country blues song with a booming rhythm section and piercing acoustic slide. Then the band takes a funky turn in Too Far To Fall. A song in which the Hoax sound reappears. In the swaying blues rock ballad Archangel, the sound of both Gary Moore (“Still Got The Blues”) and Jimi Hendrix (“Angel”) can be heard. A beautiful, quite soulful song. The Big Picture seems to be quite inspired by the John Lee Hooker boogies, while the melody of this song also features Sugarloaf's "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You".
Under The Gun then pumps full throttle again. An exciting rocker in which you can also find Thin Lizzy influences. In the piano ballad One More Chance, Paul can be heard alone in a, don't be alarmed, Supertramp-esque song.
The album closes with Exile. A song that starts as an atmospheric warm ballad, but which eventually ends as a heavy pumping song due to the increasingly heavier sounding guitar riffs.
With this album, Catfish once again proves to be one of the better British blues rock bands. The heavy boys / girls among us know what to do!
Burning Bridges FLAC