Third album for Last In Line who are back on record after the disappointing “II” of 2019. I belong to those who had praised the debut album “Heavy Crown” as I was watching a band that may have been stepping on the hard n’ heavy sound of the 80’s but had its own elements so that they can’t be called in any way a clone of the classic DIO line-up (circa 1983-1985). The follow-up with “II” included weaker compositions and even Campbell’s guitar work was not that inspiring. So what about “Jericho”…?
For starters, we skip the lousy cover that could have been designed by an elementary school student and move on to the content. The tracks are clearly better than on “II” but they don’t reach the quality of “Heavy Crown”. With a few exceptions (e.g. “We don’t run”, “Do the work”, “Ghost town”, “House Party At The End Of The World” to be precise), “Jericho” is characterized – more or less – by detrimental compositions that may not be bad but are nothing special either. On the positive side we can identify the flawless performance of Andrew Freeman, the solid playing of Appice and Soussan and of course the excellent work of Vivian who we could say is letting off steam since his main work in Leppard doesn’t allow him to do so.
“Jericho” will satisfy all fans of the 80’s sound but also all those who like technically sound albums without looking too much into whether the compositions stand out or not. A positive mark for sure but that’s as far as we can go…
Highlight: Appice’s drum intro on “We Rock” sounds familiar as it bears similarities with “We Rock”.
