The Dead Daisies are one of the supergroups that stand out because they write good songs and release decent albums without depending on the big names that are in the band, but on the essence of things, which is music.
Just after the release of this album it was announced that Glenn Hughes is replacing John Corabi and Marco Mendoza on vocals and bass respectively, therefore “Locked And Loaded” marks the end of an era. After 4 studio albums and 1 live one this is a collection of covers from different periods of the band that possibly came together for contractual reasons with their record company. It contains classic songs that cover bands around the world have in their usual setlist like “Rockin’ In The Free World”, “Fortunate Son”, “Helter Skelter”, “(We’re An) American Band” etc. but there is also a couple of surprises in there, like the amazing “Midnight Moses” originally by Alex Harvey Band that opens the album, the Who’s “Join Together” and “Evil” by Howlin’ Wolf.
With players like those there is no issue about how good the performance is. What you’d ask is their own identity, putting their mark on the covers, which is something that happens on some of the song, not all of them. In general, if you put on “Locked And Loaded” you will spend 45 pleasant minutes, nothing more. If there was no changes in the group someone might claim that this is a release to fill in the gap between their previous original album and the next and keep them active for the meanwhile. But, now it’s a souvenir from the band’s previous era while we wait for the next one.
