Spiritual Beggars

With the addition of former Grand Magus vocalist JB into the fold, Sweden's Spiritual Beggars have lost the momentum gained on 2000's brilliant Ad Astra. The band has changed their sound slightly, heading into a more classic rock direction than on previous albums. In fact, they sound more like mid-'80s Deep Purple now than the band that recorded the last few SB albums. One of the contributing factors for that lies in the keyboard sound, as more reliance on organ sounds brings a definite "classic" feel to the recording, and the more melodic singing style of JB is also a defining factor. Of course, basing songs on recycled riffs - check out the intro riff to "Fool's Gold" and tell me that Tony Iommi doesn't deserve a songwriting credit - doesn't help matters either. If this is on fire, I say let it burn and fade away.