Blacklist Union - Back To Momo album review

Blacklist Union go fourth

Blacklist Union Back To Momo album cover

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Blacklist Union are one of those bands destined to forever carry the label ‘the next Guns N’ Roses’, and their fourth album isn’t likely to change that, even if it does take off like a Jack-’n’-coke-fuelled rocket. The problem is that it peaks way too early with Shake It Off, Mirror Mirror and Evil Eye tumbling over each other in a helter-skelter welter of riffs and rapid-fire guitar solos.

Thereafter things get just a tad patchy – Graveyard Valentine and We Are Not Saints are simply not good enough to transcend the clichés – and the band seem stuck in one breakneck gear and lacking the solid-gold hooks to liven up their tales of sleaze and debauchery. Back To Momo has plenty of swagger, but too many songs are lacking substance.

Essi Berelian

Whether it’s magazines, books or online, Essi has been writing about rock ’n’ metal for around thirty years. He has been reviews editor for Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, rock reviews editor for lads mag Front and worked for Kerrang!. He has also written the Rough Guide to Heavy Metal and contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock and Rough Guide Book of Playlists, and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (13th edition). Most fun interview? Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – for The Pick of Destiny movie book. An avid record/CD/tape collector, he’s amassed more music than he could ever possibly listen to, which annoys his wife no end.