Souls of Tide
Black Magic

Black Magic comes from Norway, that is what they say. It is the second album by the band who calls itself Souls of Tide, a sextet that broke into the scene by joining the Circus in 2016. They have magic in the album title but the cover art is definitely not magical, I would say dreadful and that record wouldn’t look great in my collection though I have some poor ones there too. They are said to do seventies style music. Actually they post a question in the press sheet: “Have you ever what 70s rock band would sound like today?” The answer is that I haven’t, I already know as there are millions of such bands around and I have written about several of them.

It is retro rock music, 70s styled rock music with some catchy choruses and such. The thing that sets it apart from the original seventies stuff is the more modern clean and powerful sound, but even that isn’t among the most impressive stuff I have heard. It isn’t exactly an innovative and fresh album; it is the same stuff that has been done by those old bands and by the new ones that copies that same thing. The retro rock fans will probably get something they like. The playing time is fairly sensible, at least that is a good thing about the seventies when the vinyl format was the only logical choice.

The album starts well with some Voodoo Ritual, but after that the highlights are sparser, if present at all. I am not claiming that the songs following opening track Voodoo Ritual are weak but they don’t really excite or grab me when I listen through the album, it is Voodoo Ritual and then my mind starts wandering and soon I don’t really hear what I am listening to anymore. It is quite okay all in all but it wouldn’t have heard with some fresh thinking or at least some more dynamic stuff. Fans of the retro rock stuff will probably find this very agreeable.

So, if you are a retro fan it may be a good choice for you, less so if you enjoy fresher and more modern stuff. In the end I think that you cannot really go wrong with this album, it is good enough even though it may not be very impressive. There is no magic here, black or otherwise but the musical craftsmanship is better than the graphic.

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