Radiance is the latest album from hard rock supergroup The Dead Daisies, and now second release featuring the legend Glenn Hughes on lead vocals & bass. Hughes joins guitarist Doug Aldrich (ex-Whitesnake/Dio), guitarist David Lowy, and drummer Brian Tichy (ex-Whitesnake/Foreigner). Radiance follows Holy Ground from 2021, which was my top release of last year, so I had high hopes for this, though not quite suspecting it would come so quickly after its predecessor. There lies one of my main issues with Radiance; it's a fine hard rock record, but I can't help but feel it sounds slightly rushed after the well thought out and executed Holy Ground. Many of the same qualities are here on this latest release, but the songs aren't quite as immediate or memorable, the riffs aren't as kick ass as what we heard on that last platter, and overall, it just feels like they took less time putting this one together. That being said, Glenn Hughes sounds marvelous as always, and there are some standout tracks here. "Shine On" is a complete barnburner, Hughes singing up a storm and plenty of slashing riffs & solos from Aldrich & Lowy, and the slow, grinding, and quite doomy title track is a pure delight, the riffs menacing and Glenn delivering a deliciously ominous vocal. Upbeat opener "Face Your Fear" has more of a modern feel, but it rocks hard and is quite catchy, "Kiss the Sun" contains plenty of groove and bluesy metal guitar licks, and "Cascade" sounds like something either Black Country Communion or Tony Martin era Black Sabbath would crank out, a crushing doom laden rave-up that shakes the foundation and leaves no prisoners. "Not Human" isn't bad, nor is "Hypnotize Yourself", both decent hard rockers with a somewhat hooky chorus, but they aren't overly strong either, and that's kind of how I feel about the few others here as well. What's good is really good, the rest is...ok.
That being said, I often talk about how the strength of a handful of songs on an album can drive up the rating overall of a record that top to bottom maybe isn't that strong. In the case of Radiance that is indeed the case. Much of this album is quite stellar, and even though 3-4 songs just don't work for me all that much, the strength of the rest drives this to a 4 out of 5 in my book. Let's see if the next Dead Daisies album can match the near perfectness of Holy Ground.
Track Listing
1. Face Your Fear
2. Hypnotize Yourself
3. Shine On
4. Radiance
5. Born to Fly
6. Kiss The Sun
7. Courageous
8. Cascade
9. Not Human
10. Roll On
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