Stephen Blue Murder brought back the superior work of John Sykes after his time with Coverdale in Whitesnake flew away. Teaming up with Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin, I surely don’t have any doubt behind the musicianship of the band, and another thing that struck my nerve is how great Sykes’ voice is. The soul, the character, the emotion, he got em all in one piece, and much better than what I expect at first listen. When everything almost sounded perfect, what makes this album a bit let down for me is the unbalanced songwriting and many tracks are left with holes that supposed to be filled with something huge. Musically, Blue Murder mixed up the bluesy part of Whitesnake with a slight commercial feel of "1987", and I can also sense a trace of darker edge here and there.

Take a look at those three starting tunes, “Riot” and “Sex Child” are completely decent to my ears. Some good solos I must admit, but nothing’s really spectacular. That also goes for the next song, “Valley of The Kings”, half of it is awesome, but the other half sounded weak. The balladic “Jelly Roll” is my first fave track from this album, and “Out of Love” is even better. This song could have been a Whitesnake hit, such a great composition and a stunning vocal delivery. The title track and “Black Hearted Woman” have a strong heavy metal element and the latter is another fave of mine. “Billy” is a fun track with some punchy chorus, “Ptolemy” sounded like a musical exploration of the band, the skill is admirable, but as a song, unfortunately it kinda bores me.

If you like Whitesnake's "1987", some part of you might like this, but I think you tend to agree with me that the songwriting still have a lot of room of improvement. If only several songs are much better, I guess this one can be a blast, but with many 5 stars around for this quality, that’s just way too overrated.

Stephen John Sykes put out his second effort of Blue Murder trio in 1993 with a little departure from the debut which rooted heavily to his former band, Whitesnake. This album started with an explosive pounding rhythm of "We All Fall Down", the best uptempo track of the album, followed with an outstanding cover of the classic Small Faces tune, "Itchycoo Park". Some other good songs that I like here are "Dance" that shakes the floor with the naughty upbeat rhythm and "I'm On Fire", unleashing a fierceful Sykes shred with the raucious voice of Kelly Keeling.

"Save My Love", the timeless ballad with an unexpected heartfelt voice of John Sykes, always been my favorite and the strongest reason I bought this album. "Love Child" featured an awesome riffs and a groovy seductive chorus while "Shouldn't Have Let You Go" is a decent likeable light rock with a nice chorus and if you can get the Japanese version, the bonus track "Bye Bye" is pretty good with its crispy 60s rhythm and infectious chorus.

"Nothin But Trouble" is a rocky road for Blue Murder, didn't meet up my high expectation but also not a bad album overall. I will admit there are several dreadful songs I can't bear to listen twice but still worth to buy for several strong tracks alone, it's just that you might only want to fully spin this once in a while.

Negoba That Other Guy Makes a Statement

Whitesnake 1987 was one of the biggest metal albums of all time, the high point of a collaboration of two egomaniacs. The first of course was Tawny Kitaen's ex David Coverdale, but the second was one of hard rock / heavy metal's best guitarists ever, John Sykes (previously with Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang.) The two parted ways long before Whitesnake 87 was even released, and though Sykes' monumental guitar is what made that album the monster it was, his face was in no videos or posters. (I think he got a fine share of royalties though).

Before Coverdale could get Steve Vai to do all the work for the Whitesnake followup, Sykes had enlisted veterans Carmine Appice and Tony Franklin for this album, Blue Murder. And it is this album, not Slip of the Tongue that was the proper follow-up to the hit. Sykes guitar tone is if anything more enormous than before, with some of the most beautiful speed soloing and some monster riffs. And the guy's voice was not only passable but GOOD.

The heaviest songs on the album "Ptolemy" and "Valley of the Kings" benefit from a middle eastern tonality that adds a darkness that really gives this album an identity. Even the balladish "Jelly Roll" has plenty of soul. The whole album oozes with Sykes' enormous personality. The biggest drawback is the lyrics which are pretty superficial, but that's no difference than the Whitesnake record.

Bottom Line: Another chance to take in John Sykes' monster guitars.