''All Hell Breaks Loose'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

Black Star Riders Black Star Riders is a hard rock band formed in December 2012. The band began when members of the most recent line-up of Thin Lizzy decided to record new material, but chose not to release it under the Thin Lizzy name. While Thin Lizzy continues ...

, released in May 2013. Black Star Riders evolved from the touring version of

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or some ...

, assembled by guitarist

Scott Gorham William Scott Gorham (born March 17, 1951) is an American guitarist and songwriter who is one of the "twin lead guitarists" for the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy. Although not a founding member of Thin Lizzy, he served a continuous membership after ...

after the death of Thin Lizzy's leader

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish singer, bassist, and songwriter. His most commercially successful group was Thin Lizzy, of which he was a founding member, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist and ba ...

Background

Black Star Riders formed in December 2012, when members of the most recent line-up of

decided to record new material, but chose not to release it under the Thin Lizzy name. In May 2010, Gorham announced the latest incarnation of the group, which had toured sporadically with various line-ups since 1996, after Lynott's death in 1986. As the band toured throughout 2011 and 2012, they composed new material for possible release as a Thin Lizzy studio album, and demos were recorded in June 2012. In October 2012, it was announced that the new material would not be recorded under the Thin Lizzy name, and that a new band name would be used for the new songs. According to Gorham, this was "out of respect to Phil Lynott and the legacy he created", though he confirmed that the new material would feature the classic Thin Lizzy sound. He later confirmed that the decision was taken by himself and Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey, with the support of the other members of the band, and that the Thin Lizzy estate (controlled by Lynott's widow Caroline) had also been uncomfortable about new Thin Lizzy studio recordings. Vocalist

Ricky Warwick Ricky Warwick (born 11 July 1966) is a Northern Irish musician and the lead singer of the rock bands Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy. He is also the frontman for the Scottish hard rock band The Almighty, with whom he achieved chart success in ...

acknowledged that a portion of Thin Lizzy fans were also against the idea of Thin Lizzy studio recordings without Lynott.Classic Rock magazine, February 2013, pp17–18

Recording

With a line-up consisting of Gorham, Warwick, other Thin Lizzy touring members

Damon Johnson Damon Rogers Johnson (born July 13, 1964) is an American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, currently a solo artist and member of Thin Lizzy. In the 1990s he co-founded Brother Cane, and later joined Alice Cooper's band as lead guitarist. He w ...

(lead guitar) and

Marco Mendoza Marco Mendoza is an American rock musician who has worked in diverse genres. He became a professional rock musician in 1989 and debuted on Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward's solo album '' Along the Way''. He has performed on a number of nota ...

(bass guitar), and experienced drummer

Jimmy DeGrasso Jimmy DeGrasso (born March 16, 1963) is an American heavy metal drummer. DeGrasso played with Mama's Boys and Lita Ford before eventually working with Y&T and Megadeth and as a session or touring musician for Ozzy Osbourne (1986), White Lion ...

, Black Star Riders recorded their debut album during January 2013 with producer

Kevin Shirley Kevin Shirley (born 29 June 1960), also known as The Caveman, is a South African music producer, engineer and mixer for many artists,Spencer et al, (2007Shirley, Kevinentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, ...

. Fifteen songs were recorded, composed mostly by Johnson with Warwick providing the lyrics, with input from Gorham, Mendoza and Thin Lizzy keyboard player

Darren Wharton Darren Leigh Wharton (born 25 December 1961) is a British keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He has fronted his own band, Dare, since 1985, but first came to attention as a member of Thin Lizzy. His son, Paris, is also a musician. Biography W ...

. Twelve tracks were ultimately used for the album, including one bonus track for a special edition CD. This special edition CD also includes a DVD outlining the process of making the album. Recording was completed on 20 January, and the photography for the album and promotional material was also completed at that time, with American music photographer

Robert John The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

. Shirley mixed the album in February 2013. Warwick confirmed that the recording process was very simple, with very few

overdubs Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

(mostly harmony guitars and backing vocals), minimal use of

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

and no use of

Auto-Tune Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. Auto-Tu ...

. The lead vocals were recorded along with the band using a 'live-in-the-studio' method. Regarding the title of the album, Warwick revealed: ''"I was watching a documentary about

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

bombers and saw the name painted on the side of one of the aircraft. The name just resonated with me and it seem to encapsulate the turmoil that we, as a society, are currently experiencing. The past few years have been such a wild ride and now with the release of the album, it sounded like a bad-ass album title that summed up what Black Star Riders is all about."'' The cover art features a painting of a girl by

Gil Elvgren Gillette Elvgren (March 15, 1914 – February 29, 1980) was an American painter of pin-up girls, advertising and illustration. Best known for his pin-up paintings for Brown & Bigelow, Elvgren studied at the American Academy of Art. He ...

"Bound for Glory"

The first single was "Bound for Glory", which received its first airplay on 21 March, on

Ken Bruce Kenneth Robertson Bruce (born 2 February 1951) is a British broadcaster who is best known for hosting his long-running weekday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 1986 to 1990, and then again since 1992. Early life and career Bruce was born a ...

's mid-morning show on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

in the UK. The single was released on 24 March, with Gorham stating: ''"When it came time to pick one of these songs as a single, we had a really hard time. There are so many really great tracks here and everyone had their favourites. But in the end, we all agreed that "Bound for Glory" is the perfect choice and represents what Black Star Riders is all about."'' Warwick added that Gorham was initially not keen on the song as he thought it sounded too much like Thin Lizzy, and that it had not been demoed with the full band. During recording, Gorham and Johnson came up with the harmony guitar line that features in the song. He also explained that the character 'Johnny Wong' in the song was named after the proprietor of a Chinese restaurant in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

visited by Gorham and Mendoza. The girl named 'Mary' in second verse was based upon an ex-girlfriend of Warwick's (actually named 'Mandy'), who had a poster of Phil Lynott on her wall. Warwick initially intended the line ''"

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

in the backroom and Jesus on the wall"'' to mention Lynott, but Gorham asked him to change it.

Reception

The album met mostly positive reviews, with

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

critic Thom Jurek praising its "classic hard rock attack" and the "trademark twin guitar sound of"

. He cited it as an album filled "naturally with creativity, heft, and inspiration". ''New Noise Magazine'' critic Brandon Ringo noted that the name change suited the band, however " t'sso good, it doesn’t matter what they call it, it’s a fantastic rock n’ roll record". Sputnikmusic and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''s Michael Hann were less enthusiastic in their reviews, with the former claiming it "isn't fantastic" and sounds "generic" in places, and the latter stating the songs were "not always scaling the heights".

won the Riff Lord Award at the 2013

Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards The following is a list of the ''Metal Hammer'' Golden Gods Awards winners. Introduction The awards were conceived by Chris Ingham, John O'Sullivan & Dave Bianchi, and first held at the Kentish Town Forum in London 2003. The show was owned by Fut ...

ceremony for his work on the album.

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals, guitar *

– lead guitar,

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

– lead guitar, rhythm guitar *

– bass guitar *

– drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2013 debut albums Black Star Riders albums Nuclear Blast albums Albums produced by Kevin Shirley