Inglorious - II album review

Five-piece give classic rock a new coat of paint

Cover art for Inglorious - II album

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As brazenly and unashamedly old-school as fringed leather jackets and Flying V guitars, Inglorious’s second album bears all the hallmarks of their debut that got men in ill-fitting Whitesnake tops and Converse sneakers all aflutter. Kevin Shirley’s mix might have given this a sheen their first album lacked, but there’s nothing else here that will surprise any Inglorious fan.

Nathan James’s vocals have a remarkable knack of sounding like Glenn Hughes, David Coverdale and, on occasion – Hell Or High Water – Graham Bonnet when he was fronting MSG. It’s quite the feat.

That said, so fully transfixed are they on aping 70s rock classics – a Deep Purple riff here, a UFO lick there – that at times they’re in danger of sounding like a very versatile covers band. God only knows how many copies of Stormbringer and Burn they’ve gone through.

Very adept, then, but only occasionally enlivening.

Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.