Guitars at the ready!
As legendary names go in music, Slash is right up there in the upper echelons of Rock N' Roll history. World On Fire is the third album released during this solo stint, and it might just be the most composed and impressive due to the fact that the consistency around collaborating with Myles Kennedy and the ever trusty Conspirators has truly allowed something special to be cemented.
The important thing with this record is the fact that at this point it has become easier to look beyond it just being Slash. As ever he does more than a fine job, delivering riff after sleazy riff and of course there are solos galore, but Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators make it the complete package. When Slash released his first album under this solo venture, the multiple collaborations made for a fun, if slightly disjointed listen, but now he's been able to piece this band together who seem to have more stability than Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver were ever able to manage and it shows across Word On Fire. There we've got the GnR reference over with...
The album opens with the title track, and immediately you're thrown into a whirlwind of catchy blues infused riffs. He's not exactly reinventing the wheel on this record, you could probably listen to the first twenty seconds and identify this as a Slash track/album, but that is the beauty of it - you don't want Slash to do anything other than write killer rock n' roll tunes and with this album there are plenty. Myles Kennedy is in the form of his life at the moment as Alter Bridge go from strength to strength, and it has rubbed off on this album. His vocal performance throughout is of the highest quality, with Automatic Overdrive and Stone Blind being particular stand-outs. And as far as guitar work is concerned, check out Withered Delilah immediately. Phenomenal.
Perhaps the biggest issue on the album is in fact its length - there isn't any real reason why this needs to be 17 tracks long. Of course as ever with any album this long, you're going to have your mix of the superb and the filler. Unfortunately there are indeed a lot of filler tracks on the album, frustrating when this could so easily have been a far more concise beast.
Overall then, this is a classic Slash record - one of those perfect albums to grab a bottle of Jack, crank the volume high and rock out!