INK: Black Water Reign

Produced by CJ Martin

Released: November 4, 2008


Leeno Dee has always had an ear for a good tune and a watchful eye on the current musical fashion, but his bands manage to somehow just miss out on taking that next step to true stardom. The Candy Harlots teetered on the brink of success for years but in the end were just too drug-fucked and by the time they got clean the halcyon days for their style of rock had ended. Jerk landed a contract with the world's biggest recording company and then imploded before being able to capitalise on a Top 30 album. So you could probably excuse Ink's well-travelled bass player if he's hoping that this could be third time lucky. With three-quarters of Jerk in the line-up, Ink is essentially the same but stripped of the industrial pretensions that Lamar Lowder brought to that band and geared to appeal to the same audience now that Jerk was after five years ago.


With its combination of emo and what passes for mainstream metal these days, "Black Water Reign" perfectly embodies the style of heavy rock that is proving enormously popular at the moment thanks to the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, and indeed if one was looking for a direct comparison then the Huntington Beach combo would be it. The production is full with ridiculously loud and heavy guitars acting as counterpoint to the melodic vocals of Jonathon Devoy. The musicianship is solid and the songs are driving and catchy with a typical metal-meets-emo sound that is thoroughly generic. Anyone who has heard A7X, Atreyu or anything remotely like this will know even without hearing it exactly what "Black Water Reign" is going to sound like. Ink knows this, but they also know that music like this is amazingly popular and still appears to be swelling in popularity. This is band that isn't about making sweeping, grandiose musical statements in an effort to be seen as artistic or daringly inventive. These guys just care about making music that the kids will go nuts over, and in that endeavour they should well succeed because "Black Water Reign" is as good as or better than anything else of its ilk.

It's totally not my thing but for what it is and for what Ink is trying to do with it, "Black Water Reign" is pretty high quality, doing exactly what it needs to and doing it incredibly well. How well it will do against the tide of almost identical releases remains to be seen.

1. Any Other Day
2. My World
3. Lead or Follow
4. The Oldest Trick
5. Cry For Love
6. Two Minutes Hate
7. The High Road

Rating: 65%