Whitesnake

Whitesnake

Good to be Bad

(Steamhammer)

The band formed 30 years ago and haven't released a new album for over a decade, but there is no audible evidence that David Coverdale's notoriously coiffed collective should start calling themselves Greysnake.

The skintight jeans are still overly snug; Coverdale's voice can still outpower a jumbo jet and the riffs sound as if they've just been spat out of a volcano. Whitesnake's metal has a sheen bright enough to disorientate the listener into believing that it's still 1987.

Coverdale's aggressive hiring and firing policy must take some credit for the sharpness. The band have incorporated more than 35 different musicians since 1977 and anyone picking up an instrument in his presence knows well enough that the knives could be out any second, which may explain why some of the guitar solos sound like the guitarist's life depends on it.

Lay Down Your Love is easily an instant classic, screeching in a platinum blonde acapella before exploding into guitar chords as wide as 18 wheelers.

The title track carries a shout along as urgency and is just waiting for a stadium big enough to fill. Coverdale (left) also leverages the many comparisons made between him and Robert Plant over the years on 'Till The End of Time, which threatens to mutate into Led Zeppelin's Kashmir towards its closing stages.

All that's missing from this 1980s time capsule is the cold war. With Whitesnake exhibiting such fine form, and the likes of Poison and Van Halen hitting the road again, the good times are well and truly back for hair-rockers the world over.