Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For an album, a piece of recording history, to hold so much individual and seemingly disparate talent and turn it into a record such wealth and barnstorming enjoyment is either locked away in the recesses of the Rock music fan’s mind, ready to be spieled out in a lull of conversation in a pub one Friday night or actually physically existing in the form of Snakecharmer’s self-titled and cracking debut album.

Just one look at the names held within has the feel of that conversation having taking place, the one in which you name your fantasy line up to perform at your fantasy festival, the only thing missing would be the fantasy human being you spend the night with in the tent after all the beer has been consumed and the amps turned off. With one of the finest drummers in rock Magnum’s and Thunder’s Harry James, the elegance of the man who seems to have worked with everyone Adam Wakeman, the sincerity and brilliance of of the legendary Micky Moody and Neil Murray, Wishbone Ash’s Laurie Wisefield and Chris Ousey from Heartland, this is not just a fantasy or half-hearted attempt to fill the void in conversation on a damp Friday night with the only sound is that of pool balls clacking together hanging in the air, this is as near to a dream made reality come true for many.

To take the pounding deliverance, the dedicated and rhythmic richness of the musicians’ past experiences and bring them together in way that captures the very essence of what Rock means to so many, the fluidity alongside the sparkling, the free flowing adaptability coupled with metrical beat of over 50 years of Rock’s hypnotic growl upon the fans’ psyche makes this album an hour of blissful retreat from the stilted fare offered in some other genres.

With memories of the musicians across the ages and in through various guises, tracks such as Accident Prone, Falling Leaves, the brilliant Turn of the Screw and Guilty as Charged grip the listener hard and with the iconic feel of Whitesnake woven throughout, Snakecharmer is a collaboration that in recent years has only been topped by Black Country Communion. A tough act to follow but these gentlemen provide great power and with a heart that is as solid, as richly diverse and ultimately stunning as you are likely to find.

Ian D. Hall