Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Most people will look into the fire and see The Embers slowly losing their drama and they believe that it is a sign that the roar has begun to fade, that the kindling that warmed the soul has lost its ability to instill heat into the world; nothing could be further from the truth, to see the embers is to know that fire can be re-stoked, and in the hands of one with their own fire burning away in the hearts, their own enthusiastic inferno raging underneath the surface, then nature has its own way of sparking the fire back to life.

Fire in the soul, an inferno in the belly, and one that truly thrills the listener when they understand just how the instinct to determine your own path is engrained within us all, the difference being is that some will allow their fire to spur them on, to reason where possible with the anger within and to see it burn brightly, to see the embers roar back to life.

For John Blek, the force of humanity and its woes, its triumphs and its beauty is one that drives those glowing cinders back to life, and in his latest album of reflections and memories, The Embers, those sparks of burgeoning thoughts have become a wall of burning individuality, the kindling tightly bound and set alight and the world will invariably follow his lead.

Such is conflagration of expectancy, songs such as Flame, Revived, The Haunting, Ciara Waiting and the opening flash point of Empty Pockets are guaranteed to remind the listener that it is not just sitting round the fire in which stories are told, but in the determination to build the bonfire which sets the scene and invites others to offer their own tales to the light that sparks the flame.

An album of great honesty, of reflected passions and the urgency of creativity to which only one who has mastered the story and who built the fire can be truly appreciated. 

John Blek’s The Embers is out now and available via K&F Records.

Ian D. Hall