The Company of Snakes - Here they go again - Live - 2001
intro
OK, let´s forget progressive rock, Gothic, prog-metal, RIO, neofolk, zeuhl, etc... It´s rockin´ time in progVisions. I´m sure lots of our proghead readers come from the exciting world of 80´s heavy metal and if I look your LP collection I´m sure I´ll find pearls of mythical bands such as Whitesnake.
review
I won't speak about David Coverdale -hey, this is general culture! - but if you should know that Dave had one of the most granite and solid bands in the history of rock´n´roll. He has recorded amazing albums like "Ready ´n Willing" or "Lovehunter" with great musicians who have forged the history of the snake. Neil Murray (bassist, former Colosseum II, Gary Moore, Brian May or Jon Lord), Micky Moody (guitars) and Bernie Marsden (guitars) have recruited Don Airey (keyboards and former, among others, of Colosseum II, Jethro Tull, Thin Lizzy, MSG, Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow, Gary Moore or Brian May), John Lingwood (drummer and former Arthur Brown or Manfred Mann) and the young boy Stefan Bergren (vocals), to develop an extensive tour during two years. The shows at Wacken 2000 festival and Oslo were the excuse to record this fabulous double CD.
As you can imagine, most of the tracks included in the set list of The Company of Snakes come from Whitesnake´s discography, so you will listen again to some very vigorous versions of "Walking in the shadows of blues", "Slow and easy", "Trouble", "Ready and willing", "Don´t break my heart again" or "Lovehunter". For those who thought "Is this love?" or "Here I go again" were recorded by Vai, Sarzo, Aldridge and Vandenberg for 1987 CD (no!, Vai and Co. did the 1987 world tour, but they didn't record the CD), The Company of Snakes recreates both songs to prevail their property rights. Along with Whitesnake´s all time hits, the band also plays some other covers (impressive Rainbow´s "Since you´ve been gone") and some other surprises. And this is what you will find in this double live CD that I´m sure will wake up your rock vein.
conclusion
In short, one could always have requested something more, but I suppose that Coverdale is very busy with his mansions instead of making some special appearance in albums like this. The musicians are veteran warriors hardened in a thousand battles (except the singer, who seems a little bit inexperienced) and, logically, they know how to offer what people want. Beautiful "revival" CD although, but it would recommend you the original versions.