ALBUM REVIEW: Black Oak County - Theatre of the Mind

The press release for this album reads “ Black Oak County are back! Upon the release of their debut album “Black Oak County”, the band was promised a bright future by the likes of Classic Rock Magazine, Flick of the finger and Metal hammer“. Well yes it was, indeed it was, but you could have read that here at The Rockpit way before any of those other guys hinted that ‘Black Oak County’ might well achieve Rock immortality.

Formed in 2012 it took five years to get that debut out, so two years for the follow up isn’t bad going, but the kicker here is of course that in the fall of 2017, “in a period of great success for Black Oak County“, singer Niels Beier chose to leave the band and music all together.

Now don’t get us wrong, Black Oak County was always about the songs and that first album was a great example of a band where all four members were contributing to the mix, but Beier did have a helluva voice. What did the band choose to do? Well rather than recruit a new vocalist, bassist René Hjelm added vocals to his duties, transforming the band into a power trio. Is Hjelm as good a vocalist as Beier? – well thats a matter for you to decide, to me his voice is a little cleaner, has less patina and less soul in there but it serves the songs almost as well.

‘Black Oak County’ in essence had to change, or maybe they’d ague that they had to grow, as a result of that departure. If I’m completely honest the first thing that you notice is that change in vocals ‘Watch Your Back’ that opens has that sort of fire in the belly, guitars blazing thrust you’d hope for but the vocals just lack that extra bite that would push the song over the edge. ‘Just Another Psycho’ is great too, and has that heavy sleazy vibe that really suits the music, and whilst ‘My Chance To Change’ keeps that thought it’s not quite as immediate as that opening pair, ironically injecting a bit of Shinedown/Hinder pop thrust that I know others will love.

‘Pretty Pistol’ (check out the video) seems to point to what the band want to sound like, it’s like listening to a melting pot of influences from Shinedown, to Hinder, to Black Stone Cherry and even bands like Beautiful Creatures and Endeverafter (maybe). One things for sure the emphasis is firmly on the melodies and when they hit you with a song like ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ you can really see the future shining bright.

The rest of the album delivers more of the same with ‘Wasted Life’ and ‘I Know You’re Lonely’ testing out that melodic focus with a pair of mid-tempo rockers and closing pair ‘Stick To My Guns’ and ‘Theatre Of The Mind’ taking a harder and heavier approach more in line with their debut. I certainly prefer the latter, though for me the song of the album may well just be ‘Sycophantic’ which really gets the balance just right.

Does this make the impact of the debut? Well for me they’ve lost that element that tipped them over the edge,but it’s close, damned close. Certainly on of the best albums you’ll hear all year. Expect great things.

Band Members: Jack Svendsen – guitar | René Hjelm – bass, vocals | Mike Svendsen – drums

Links: Official Website | Facebook