Black Eyes Blue is one of two new singles released by Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor ahead of the release of his debut solo album CMFT via Roadrunner Records on 2nd October.
Black Eyes Blue is a very strong opening single. For those who only know of Corey via Slipknot, the sound and style of this single may well come as something of a surprise.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og1RMTP2fYk&w=560&h=315]There is none of the wild metal ferocity of Slipknot within this track. Instead, Taylor has given us an excellent piece of modern hard rock that is absolutely dripping with melody and that has a production that is powerful, yet brilliantly restrained.
The guitar sounds are very ‘classic rock’ in that they are somewhat cleaner than you might expect from someone with Taylor’s musical heritage and the production layers those guitars up beautifully; so that the verses are more sparse, but the choruses are very full.
Taylor’s vocals are strong and powerful and he makes full use of his range throughout the track. The chorus is particularly good, with massed harmonies adding more to what is already a truly excellent hook. You’ll be singing along to this pretty quickly, as the chorus is incredibly infectious and very memorable.
Mention must also be made of the other musicians who contribute so well to this single. The guitar parts are superb; the solo in particular has some mightily impressive fast harmonised runs and some cool arpeggiated lines and the drumming also works really well, with some clever use of fills and accents to drive parts of the song forward.
In short, Black Eyes Blue is a fantastic piece of modern hard rock, oozing class, melody and power. If the rest of the CMFT album is as good as Black Eyes Blue, then any fan of powerful modern hard rock will absolutely love it.
Stream ‘Black Eyes Blue’ and ‘CMFT Must Be Stopped’, and pre-order/pre-save CMFT here: https://coreytaylor.lnk.to/cmft Website: http://thecoreytaylor.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/coreytaylor Twitter: http://twitter.com/CoreyTaylorRock Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheCoreyTaylo
Review by Andy Hawes for MPM
