Back around a decade or so ago those trusted and true Sons Of The North, otherwise known as Black Spiders, really could do wrong. Seamlessly blending low slung Desert Rock riffs with effortlessly cool hooks all wrapped up in live shows packed full of punk rock energy, they were the band the website I wrote for at the time (Uber Rock) had been waiting for, and to top it all off they then went and released an absolute stonker of a debut album in 2011’s ‘Sons Of The North’. This folks really was a band that ate thunder and shit lightning.

Somewhere down the line though, after recording their Pledge funded second album ‘This Savage Land’ and taking that record out on the road, by the time I caught up with them again at Hellfest in France in the summer of 2013, something just didn’t feel right, and whilst the band still turned in an amazing live show if you’d asked me if they looked like they had enjoyed it…I’d probably have had to say “no!”

Black Spiders carried on for a further four years after that (releasing just the ‘Rat Mansion’ EP via digital platforms after the ‘Savage’ campaign ended) before they eventually called it a day in 2017 via a couple of emotionally and sonically charged farewell shows.

With frontman/guitarist Pete ‘Spider’ Spiby then going on to record and release his eclectic and expansive solo outing ‘Failed Magician’ (a double album no less) in 2018 and then undertake a well-received tour with MC50 to support it’s release, if you’d have told me then that Black Spiders would soon be back together and releasing album number three in the midst of a global pandemic, I’d probably have asked you for some of what you’d been smoking.

But that’s exactly what I’ve got here folks, thirteen brand new tracks from four of the original Spiders (Spiby being joined once again by guitarists Andrew ‘Ozzy’ Lister and Mark ‘Dark Shark’ Thomas plus bassist Adam ‘The Fox’ Irwin) complete with new drummer Wyatt Wendel (yup he of Planet Rock radio fame) making this (alongside the awesome debut album from The Limit) perhaps one of the most welcome surprises 2021 has yet to deliver.

With new boy Wendel immediately taking front of stage via his colossal drum sound on the intro to lead single ‘Fly In The Soup’ the thing that immediately knocks me off my feet is that Black Spiders have never sounded more like the Black Spiders of those early days, and any fears of the band writing disparately might make it something of a miss match of styles and ideas can immediately be thrown out the window.

Case in point is up next, with ‘Stabbed In The Back’, a proper three-minute banger if ever there was one and a tune that wouldn’t have been out of place on an early QOTSA album if the truth be told.

Likewise, ‘Give Em What They Want’ pays a similar kind of Hommage with Spiby delivering some of his finest and perhaps most understated vocals to date and is truly fabulous stuff, whilst for those of you who might like the idea of your Black Spiders being cut through with just a touch of Australian rock please do make sure to check out the band’s retelling of the Easybeats’ ‘Good Times’, which has much more in common with the INXS/Jimmy Barnes’ version included on the Lost Boys soundtrack than the ‘60s original. Yup it’s basically a cover of a cover but it actually fits in well with the overall tone of the album, no worries.

For those of you longing for some of the more straight-ahead Black Spiders doom-laden riffage, there’s plenty for you to get stuck into too with the likes of ‘Death Comes Creepin’, ‘Down To The River’ and ‘Wizard Shall Not Kill Wizard’ all three delivering total low-end satisfaction whilst also allowing the band themselves breathing space to take in their total awesomeness.

For me though its when ‘Black Spiders’ throw me a slight curveball that I get really excited about them being back again, like on the slow-burning ‘Rock N Roll’ where Spiby once again shines, delivering a vocal that has me thinking I might not have been the only one listening to Vinnie Dombroski and Sponge back in the nineties. Meanwhile in album closer ‘Crooked Black Wings’ there’s enough old school metal on offer to have every available drinking horn raised worldwide once we can all get back to some sort of normality and go see live music once again.

So, if the prospect of listening to an album designed to make you smile from ear to ear sounds appealing, why not click on the link below and pre-order your copy of ‘Black Spiders’. You most certainly will not regret it!

Oh, and let’s not forget – FUBS!!!!

Buy ‘Black Spiders’ Here

Author: Johnny Hayward