STRAY TRAIN-Blues From Hell-

The Legend of The Courageous Five-SAOL

The sophomore album of the Slovenian band Stray Train again (just like the debut) has a very long title; ‘Stray Train 2, Blues From Hell, The Legend Of The Courageous Five’ To tell you the truth I had never heard of these guys before and when I heard the first song ,,Electrified” from their new album I was blown away. Honestly, what the f…, these guys rock like hell and this is blues rock music played at a very high musical level. Follow up ,,Heading For The Sun” – hello Led Zeppelin – is one of my favourite tracks on the album; up tempo, melodic and a great spacy guitar solo. ,,Blues From Hell”, kicking off with a Black Sabbath-like doom riff is also filled with great guitar work, and another highlight called ,,Give It Away” features an excellent hook and a Slash-like flashy guitar solo. However in my humble opinion there are also a couple of ‘’fillers” on this great album, take e.g. the rather mediocre ,,No Easy” or the last track ,,Miracle”, a dull, almost entire acoustic track and as you know I hate acoustic tracks…. The album was recorded at the notorious Wisseloord studio in our small country, The Netherlands, and it was again self-produced. However, this new album was mixed by no other than Ronald Prent, whose name may sound familiar as he already worked for The Simple Minds, Def Leppard and Rammstein.

Conclusion: the second album of Stray Train is a must for lovers of mean and lean, dirty blues rock and remember to play it loud!!!