North Star Blues is the follow-up to Dark Days Ahead’s debut album The Long Road South and it’s a great little release containing a strong mix of songs.
It gets off to a good enough start, but it’s the title track where the album truly gets going. With a rifftastic introduction, it brings a powerful blend of energy and downright formidable instrumentation before the vocals even kick in – which somehow manage to inject even more life into the track! One of the highlights of the album for sure.
Dark Days Ahead keep up the pace throughout, with Heroes Of The World and Blood, Sweat & Broken Neck being especially strong inclusions, and Last Day Of Light is a surprising track. A change of atmosphere to the energy and noise of the other songs, it’s a chilled and relaxed acoustic number that sits nicely in the middle of the album and divides it up perfectly.
An all-round enjoyable listen. Dark Days Ahead know how to construct a memorable song and there’s a great amount of variety throughout. Excellent stuff.
8/10
