Simon RushworthBlack Spiders — Can’t Die, Won’t Die (Spinefarm)
Revisiting the Spiders-verse is like being reacquainted with that old rocker of a mate you’ve not seen since that bawdy Barrowlands gig in 1991.
You know the lad.
Loves AC/DC, Motörhead, Hanoi Rocks and The Cult.
Press him hard enough after a few bottles of Buckfast and he’d even admit to liking the odd bona fide 80s pop rock banger.
If Abba did Acca Dacca he’d be all over it.
And he’s the very personification of Black Spiders: the Spandau Ballet of Stoner Rock.
If 2021’s self-titled comeback rolled back the years with typical disdain, then Can’t Die, Won’t Die raises the middle finger higher still.
The album title’s ‘fuck you’ refrain sits so well with a band that’s always played on its anti-hero status.
And the circle pit-ready songs rattle along at an incendiary pace — befitting of a band that’s still making up for lost time.
Of course Black Spiders were always an eight-legged behemoth of a live band, laying waste to just about every venue they crawled into.
But Can’t Die, Won’t Die is the first time that raw energy has been captured on record.
Four albums in and Matt Elliss has finally unlocked the secret to the Spiders’ success.
Turn your amp up to 10 and this feels like you’re front and centre with Pete Spiby spitting expletives all over your Sabbath-themed battle jacket.
And if it doesn’t then the band’s lined up a full UK headline tour this autumn.
So fuck you.
An Almighty effort from the brilliant Black Spiders
Months after The Almighty announced its first shows for years, Can’t Die, Won’t Die proves balls-to-the-wall British rock is still alive and kicking.
In fact, the Spiders’ brand new record often sounds like something Ricky Warwick and co. would have worked up post-Blood, Fire & Love.
It’s got that heavy, expansive, grinding groove.
It’s working class, witty and wonderfully unrepentant.
On reflection, had Balaam And The Angel not already bagged the support slots for those Almighty shows in December then Spiby and co. would be the perfect fit.
But hey…there might still be room for some special guests.
Can’t Die, Won’t Die cuts through the crap like a knife through butter.
Traitor’s Walk appears to chart a gloriously bitter journey of rock and roll redemption.
And the ultimate stoner celebration that is Another Weekend is surely best enjoyed under the influence of some industrial strength weed.
Single Hot Wheels is nothing to do with the little die-cast toys you used to send off plastic ramps into the nearest wall.
But it’s all about peak singalong Spiders and another earworm of a chorus.
On the surface Make Me Bleed’s a rather miserable tune…but it’s another bona fide banger with subtle nods to The Darkness and Muse.
And that’s Black Spiders in a nutshell: in reality, they’re multi-faceted fuckers with far more than the same three chords up their tattooed sleeves.
Can’t Die, Won’t Die is the rock and roll resurrection we all need.
Indeed, it’s comforting to know that Black Spiders are indestructible, after all.
