Review: Smith/Kotzen – Black Light / White Noise

BMG (April 4^th 2025)

Reviewer – David Mark Pearce

Here is the second album by the magical pairing of Richie Kotzen and Adrian Smith! 

If you thought the debut was good then this is 100 times better! As good as the debut was there’s nothing like a tour to solidify a relationship and I feel that’s exactly what’s happened here! 

Yes they knew each other well, hell it was their wives who suggested they should do something together, but when you tour together I feel that’s another level of connection, so when they start to write the next album there was a solid basis to jump off from and boy did they!!

Soaked in 70’s rock with heavy overtones of soul and funk, this is 10 tracks of exactly that! 

Guitar playing aside, vocally they gell so well together. It’s so good to hear Adrian on vocals as well as Richie of course, but we as fans are more used to Richie singing, where as apart from Adrian’s album back in the 90’s, and of course this pairs’ debut, that’s all we have vocally, so you can hear the strength in his voice now really coming through. 

The guitar playing from both of them, well what do you say? Both are great players, both at the top of their game. Richie has most of the flash I would say and Adrian the more bluesy approach, but he too has more than his fair share of flair to take on Richie with! 

Sonically this album has a better mix than the debut. Things just sound more together and solid and I think the songwriting really helps this!  

However my one and only criticism, and it’s a very minor one, is that the opening riff to the song ‘Darkside’ is very, very similar to Bon Jovi’s ‘Dry County’. Still, that’s a great song too, so who cares? The songwriting on ‘Darkside’ is awesome, as it is on every other song on this album! All the songwriting is really strong! 

As far as I’m concerned this duo has a very long future ahead of it and I for one will be there to listen every step of the way!

Fantastic album! 

Tracklist:

1. Muddy Water
2. White Noise
3. Black Light
4. Darkside
5. Life Unchained
6. Blindsided
7. Wraith
8. Heavy Weather
9. Outlaw
10. Beyond The Pale