Smith / Kotzen – Black Light / White Noise

vote
6.5

• Band:
  Smith/Kotzen
• Duration: 00:45:12
• Available since: 04/04/2025
• Label:

• BMG

Streaming not yet available

The solo parallel projects have always aimed to allow an artist to express himself in a field other than that is best known, also allowing himself of freedoms, without fear that these can affect his main career in any way. In the meeting between Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen there is this aspect, of course, but there is first of all a friendship that, in spite of a very different background, made an unexpected understanding find the two.
Their debut album, simply entitled “Smith / Kotzen”, had been a pleasant relief valve, with Kotzen to put its virtuosity at the service of a very classic hard rock disc, and Adrian Smith free to show off its most blues roots, which could hardly find space in an Iron Maiden album.
Four years later-interspersed with a disc that collected just a few b-sides and live recordings-the two found themselves signing a second unreleased album, “Black Light / White Noise”, which continues in the same trail traced by the debut, with a collection of good songs, which however honestly do not make the miracle shout.
It is clear that the profession of these two musicians feels everything: Richie Kotzen is certainly the most gifted from a technical point of view, both as guitarist and as a singer, but Adrian Smith, for his part, has a very recognizable touch and a voice that, even without who knows what claims, knows how to be warm and well harmonized with that of the colleague. Also excellent the solos, on both sides, which undoubtedly represent one of the strengths of the disc.
Once these premises have been archived, however, we realized, already after a few listening, that our interest in this second chapter was running out too quickly.
The reasons are manifold, starting from the absence of that surprise effect on which the first album could rely, but the factor that weighs most of all, probably, is that “Black Light / White Noise” is a disk without bite.
And we are not talking about the pure and simple heaviness of the sound – the two, here, play in a different championship, which has more contacts with the rock/blues – but rather of a certain tired attitude, which makes everything play as if it had the proverbial handbrake pulled. And it is a shame, because the class is there and the most intense songs such as “Muddy Water”, “Heavy Weather”, or the Ballad “Beyond the Pale”, placed in closing, show a potential that cannot materialize as we would have expected.
The names of Smith and Kotzen have a weight that can be able to arouse the attention of many regardless, and certainly we do not find ourselves in front of a bad job, yet, precisely because of the respect and consideration we have towards them, we cannot help but think that from two artists of this caliber it would be legitimate to expect something more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pabdwowpjgi