After seeing the band live four short years ago, I wasn’t sure what kind of new material Coverdale and the gang could produce. The live performance put me off, mostly because of DC’s strained, screechy vocals.

It must have been an off night.

This album rocks. I mean really, it does. If you are a fan of 1987’s “Whitesnake”, this will take you right back there. It’s not modern sounding at all, and that is brilliance of it. There are actually places on there where you could swear John Sykes is still with the band. Terrific solos, LOTS of guitar work. See? Some musicians STILL know how to play! How refreshing.

Sit down, Nickleback. You, too, Fall Out Boy. The big boys are back, in a big way!

Whitesnake has never been about deep, intelligent lyrics. The songs are filled with cliche’ driven, romantic, “cock” rock. Just bluesy, soulful Zeppelinesque grooves.And what’s wrong with that? Feel-good rock is about air-guitar glory and escapism. David’s voice has lost some range, but he controls it nicely and handles his vocals with style. Don’t worry though, he can still hit the necessary high notes.

Good album. Can’t wait until their touring mates Def Leppard hits with SONGS FROM THE SPARKLE LOUNGE next week. They should bring that show to the states!

WHITESNAKE’S Good To Be Bad includes some of their best new material in quite a while, of course American release of new material has been somewhat sparse of late. Coverdale and the current lineup featuring the guitar duo of Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach are solid, slick, and polished. The songs are tight and include all of the classic “Snake” influences of hard rock, blues, ballads, and all in between. Very good lyrics, melodies, and musicianship throughout, whether it be the hard rockers or ballads. I am a Whitesnake fan and have been for quite a while and admit to some bias, but I highly recommend this CD for anyone who loves great heavy duty rock played in a very polished and professional way, yet still fun and exciting to listen to. Keep it up guys.

Being a hardcore Deep Purple fan for 35+ years I knew who Whitesnake was WAY before mainstream America discovered them complements of shallow MTV posing. And by that statement you can tell I was a little disappointed in the hair metal poser direction Coverdale took the band after the late 70s – early 80s line-up broke up; when they changed from a pretty good blues-rock band to just another Led Zep/Sabbath clone band. While I’d never say it wasn’t fun to listen to, I really got tired of his shallow posing vanity show and it got to the point where I simply couldn’t watch him and preferred just to listen to the CDs instead!

And, after hearing the first track on “Good to be Bad” I was even more disappointed…heck, it’s such a BLATANT rip-off of the Allman Bro’s classic “Whipping Post”, with a different chorus, it’s nothing less than disgusting!! The verse phrasing, even the organ itself is such an exact copy I expected to hear David sing “sometimes I feel, sometimes I FEEL…” at any moment!! While I do think it’s a catchy tune and definitely listenable I thought, wow…here he goes ripping other bands off again, not an original idea in his head!!

But, as the other tracks played I became more and more impressed and track #5, the title track, sunk its hook in me on the very first listen!! So now I have to say that I am impressed and heartily agree with my fellow reviewers…Coverdale and the boys have produced a heck of a come back album!! In fact I wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s one of the best comebacks I have ever heard!!! And I’m telling everyone I know about it too!

As mentioned above, track #5 “Good to be Bad” is nothing less than one of the GREATEST Whitesnake songs I have ever heard and “Best years” (the Whipping Post clone), “Call On Me”, “Lay Down Your Love”, “A Fool In Love” and “Got What You Need” are also already on my MP3 player!

Bottom line: if you are a Whitesnake fan, GET THIS! Get it immediately!! And if you like good rock in any form, even if you were never a snake fan, get it anyway!! And crank it up!!!

This album is exactly what you would expect from Whitesnake. Great vocals, ripping/wailing guitars, pounding drums. There are eight rockers and three power ballads. All thriller and no fillers at all.
The album has a fresh energy to it that brings Whitesnake into 2008 with a kick.
I highly recommend this album to all who love to rock.
CRANK UP YOUR SOUND SYSTEM and enjoy……

THE BAND: David Coverdale (vocals), Doug Aldrich (guitars), Reb Beach (guitars), Uriah Duffy (bass), Tim Drury (keyboards), Chris Frazier (drums & percussion).

THE DISCS: (2008) Disc 1: 11 tracks clocking in at approximately 59 minutes. Disc 2: 7 live tracks clocking in at approximately 42 minutes (recorded songs taken from the DVD “Live: In The Still Of The Night” from 2006). Also on Disc-2 is a 4 minute video “Ready To Rock”. Included with the discs is an 18-page booklet containing song titles/credits, song lyrics, one band photo, and thank you’s. Recorded at Casa DALA (Los Angeles) and Snakebyte Studios (Lake Tahoe, CA). All songs written by Coverdale/Aldrich. Label – SPV / Steamhammer.

COMMENTS: I approached this album with hesitation upon release. I had to know if Coverdale and Company could still push it to the limit. Or, if they’d gone limp and flooded this disc with sappy power ballads geared toward their female audience and perhaps the dentist’s office. With that being said – I was pleasantly surprised by this album. 8 songs rock hard. 3 songs soft. As an old school rocker who grew up in the 70’s, I’d like this album a tad bit more if it had only one or two ballads. Coverdale, plain and simply, sounds old on these sentimental songs (57 years old in fact). The softer songs include “All I Want All I Need” (for some reason I keep picturing creepy old Herbert from “Family Guy” singing this), “Summer Rain” (the worst song on the disc – pure Vermont sap), and “Til The End Of Time” (a bluesy and folksy album closer – even though the album doesn’t close on a hard rocking power chord… this is a beautiful acoustic song and Coverdale makes it work). The rockers are glorious – and there are a lot of them. Highlights include the opener “Best Years” (featuring ultra crunchy rhythm guitars with a blistering solo – listening to this first track caught my attention and I really felt this song kicked the album off nicely); “Call On Me” (my favorite song on the album… heavy and full of attitude… showcasing Aldrich and Beach’s mastery of the axe); the title track (great song – reminiscent of the “Slip Of The Tongue” era); and “A Fool In Love” (bluesy… simply an infectious groove… my 2nd favorite song here). The only thing that perhaps grows tiresome is Coverdale crooning about the weather bringing changes, and that ready-and-willing / surrender-to-me / do-it-all-for-love self serving rock and roll attitude. But wait, this is David Coverdale – and he’s done that for the past 3 decades… so surely this comes as no surprise. Disc-2 is a treat – the sound production is crisp and the live songs rock. For me, the highlights from Disc-2 are the opener “Burn/Stormbringer” (anyone hear Iron Maiden’s “Wrathchild” rhythm section when the band goes into “Stormbringer”?), and “Take Me With You” where Aldrich and Beach really let loose on guitar. Whitesnake fans from the 80’s might compare “Good To Be Bad” with their well-known albums “Slide It In” (1984) and/or their self titled (1987) release… and I’ll agree – it’s probably not as good as these two quintessential albums. In the end, “Good To Be Bad” isn’t a classic at this point… though, in time it very well could be. A great comeback – and in my opinion, Coverdale still has it (4.5 stars).