Band:	Black Rain
Album:	License To Thrill
Style:	Glam metal
Release date:	November 2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Rock Your City
02. Innocent Rosie
03. N.A.S.T.Y
04. True Girls Are Sixteen
05. License To Thrill
06. No Forever
07. Rock N Roll Is Dead Long Live Rock N Roll
08. Rockstars Don't Go To Jail
09. Party N War
10. Kill Em All

"License To Thrill" is the second album of the French Glam rockers of Black Rain. I don't know why but this musical genre seems to live a big "revival period" nowadays and yes as you can see we even have a new young band in the genre in France. The problem here is that even if Black Rain seems to play its music with a lot of energy and passion, there is nothing special in the new album. I'm sorry to say that but for me, "License To Thrill" is just useless?

In my opinion the only really positive point of this new album comes from the guitar soli of Max2. The guy is a really good guitarist and his guitar soli are technical with a good groove. The guy doesn't have to be ashamed to be compared with the "famous" guitarists who play with the leaders of the genre, really he is doing a great job here. Though, despite this good beginning of my review I'm sorry to tell you that it will be hard to find other good things in this album. Of course musically speaking this is not badly done but we've heard it all before and there is absolutely nothing new and special in this album. It's a bit like if Black Rain was just trying to copy its olders, and of course if you're already into this music you'll not find anything really interesting? The songs are average I didn't find any real hit, this is extremely poor unfortunately and if Black Rain wants to become a bit more famous, they will have to add something else to their recipe. Sorry but this is a bit too easy to live through something which has been done 10 million times before today?

Yeah, "License To Thrill" is a pure album of Glam Rock with all what you want to see with such bands (even the cheesy look of course?). This is fast and Rock N Roll, melodic, it talks about love and "relationship" and of course the cheesy ballad ("No Forever") is not missing. I know that the fans of the genre probably want something like that but if "License To Thrill" is not terrible, this is simply dull and too unoriginal. But the "best" thing here is the performance of the singer, which is simply terrible! His voice is too high and clearly out of tune a lot of time, if I remember he was even better on the first album I don't understand what's happening and since that the production is not perfect, "License To Thrill" is just really deceiving.

Sorry but Glam Rock have never been fantastic (don't read that everything is bad of course) and this kind of releases will not help the genre to become a bit more popular through the fans who like to listen to real Hard Rock. Black Rain will have to react as soon as possible, their "License To Thrill" is just a mistake, so please in the future if you have to do other albums, try to surprise us and do it well!