Seven years after their last album, British hard rockers THE JOKERS are back with “Rock and Roll Bones“, produced by guitarist Paul Hurst with his partner Anthony Brady, who also mixed the recording.
This is an album packed with glorious, fluid lead guitar licks, vivid, expressive vocals, groove ridden bass lines and crisp, cracking drums and a lot of catchy hooklines. They sound like a healthy mix between CHICKENFOOT, AC/DC and THE BLACK CROWES.
THE JOKERS begin to write and record “Rock and Roll Bones” in 2018, but the start of the pandemic killed all the plans of the release. In fall 2021 they hooked up with Metalapolis Records from Germany for a world-wide distribution of “Rock and Roll Bones”, and show to all Classic Rock / Hard fans of the globe how good they rock.
The band may be from North West England but the short intro is all voodoo before track one proper kicks in and ‘You’re Gone’ brings some solid, quality rock with hints of Europe via Glenn Hughes… nice! The title track has that AC/DC-styled influence but with more depth as the guitar phrasing behind it all fills the sound out.
‘Walk Through The Door’ slows the pace and ups the blues in a superbly put-together track; every instrument brings something special to match the excellent vocals. ‘Ghost Road’ brings a touch of funk to the clever blues-based rock. ‘Find My Way Home’, after the tasty bass and drum intro, unfolds like Free, even the guitar chord work has a neat touch of Koss. The closing track, ‘Carnival’ is sixty-three seconds of the Day of the Dead celebration.
OK, tracks one and fourteen are there for atmosphere only, but the other dozen are, without exception, high-quality bluesy, hard rockin’ stuff that begs one question: why aren’t these guys more widely known, appreciated and lauded?…
This is high-quality rock ’n’ roll and deserves your attention.
1 Ritual
2 You're Gone
3 Rock and Roll Bones
4 Walk Through the Door
5 Slapback
6 Water on Fire
7 Cold eart
8 Ghost Road
9 Find My Way Home
10 Snake Oil Devil
11 Supercell Brothers
12 Granite Stone
13 Queen of America
14 Carnival
The Jokers – Rock and Roll Bones 2022, MP3+FLAC