Black Rose’s second album – Walk it How You Talk it – from 1986 gets a welcome reissue on a limited CD run of 500 copies and includes the band’s Nightmare EP and a DVD of live performances from back in the day.
Their debut album – Boys Will Be Boys – marked up Black Rose as a New Wave of British Heavy Metal era band with some not inconsiderable refinement (if that’s the right word) and a melodic element to their style.
That melodic element would come to the fore further on Walk it How You Talk it whilst retaining plenty of chugging, monster riffs, excellent lead breaks and thumping choruses to boot. Every song on the album is a winner as indeed is the Nightmare EP. And if further evidence is needed the high energy performances on the DVD in front of an enthusiastic crowd show what a talented crew Black Rose were.
Despite being armed with such a monster of an album it didn’t quite work out for them back then. It did look good when K-Tel (remember that label?) were set to release the album in the US and a tour was arranged. However a few “legal issues” blew up which if I recall my history were around a US band also called Black Rose. This signalled the beginning of the end.
Such a shame as Walk it How You Talk it would surely have gone down big in the States and competed well with the likes of Bon Jovi, Poison, Ratt et-al who were cleaning up over there in the mid-80s.
Starting with California USA each song on the album is forceful, big riffs and powerchords aplenty, on point lead work, big rhythm section and wonderfully powerful yet melodic vocals. The choruses generally fist thumping and anthemic.
Perhaps none more so that the title track, which spits along apace and Shout it Out. I defy you to listen to either song and not be impressed. Indeed – here’s Shout it Out:
All high-class hard/heavy/melodic rock, well written and enthusiastically performed over the entire album and EP.
A most recommended listen and full marks to Lost Realm Records for putting this together. Get your hands on a copy if you can before all 500 are gone. As I type this post the label’s web site is listing as available:
https://www.lostrealmrecords.com/
Black Rose reformed around 2006 putting out Cure for Your Disease in 2010. Then earlier this year released the excellent WTF (review here). Perhaps there’s more to come.