Band : Whitesnake

Album title : All For Love

Label : Steamhammer

Distributor : SPV/ CNR

Release date : March 2008

Release : (3-track) EPCD

As a prelude to the new Whitesnake studio album (the first since 1997's Restless Heart , which was really a solo Coverdale album), we get this 3-track sampler EP containing the album versions of the songs "All For Love" and "Lay Down Your Love" , plus a radio edit of "All I Want All I Need" . The latter being a sensitive ballad with all the best of latter day Whitesnake trademarks, being of course in the first place Coverdale 's incredibly Bluesey voice...topped by Doug Aldrich & Reb Beach 's fantastic guitar play on a foundation by the rhythm section comprised of bassist Uriah Duffy and drummer Tommy Aldritch , with some additional atmospheric keyboards by Timothy Drury to boot! The other songs can be seen as Heavy Rock songs with an emphasis on the guitars, but which are certainly not devoid of a healthy additional injection of keyboards. Still, the overall atmosphere on those two tracks is, as Coverdale states himself, "...very butch, very muscular...".

The new album arriving on April 21 (that's the European street date; Germany will get the album 3 days earlier; for North-America it'll be a day later) will contain a total of 11 new tracks (yes indeed, no re-hashing of the 4 studio songs that were included on 2006's In The Shadow Of The Blues ). That's the regular CD version, of course. There's also to be a double LP vinyl release (which will contain a bonus track with a live version of "Take Me With You" - a Whitesnake classic, as you may well know) and a (limited edition) double CD which is to contain that same live song as well as an acoustic version of the album track "Summer Rain" , the radio edit of "All I Want All I Need" , and the video for "Ready To Rock" (one of the live album studio tracks).

What else can be said? As a follow-up to those fantastic 4 studio tracks we already got on the live album, these 3 tracks can only serve as a confirmation that Whitesnake is indeed back with a vengeance! Check out myspace.com/whitesnake for a taste "Ready To Rock" and a total of 5 classics. Nothing off the new album, but those available will give you a perfectly good idea of what to expect. Whitesnake will be "on the road" to promote their new album in the near future, and will also be appearing at Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting festival (should be June 27 th ; for other dates check out the band's Myspace page).

98/100

Tony.