One of the most celebrated reissues in classic rock circles last year was Deep Purple's 1976 swan song album 'Come Taste The Band'. A wonderful remaster and Jerry Shirley re-mix of the album quite rightly brought glowing reviews as the album was reassessed. This was a young David Coverdale in his early prime, glowing with confidence and producing some wonderful vocals. It set him up nicely to go on from Purple, to form Whitesnake and establish his legacy. And boy what a legacy that is. Three fantastic Deep Purple albums, two solid early solo albums and then a string of classic Whitesnake albums, from '78's 'Trouble' through to '84's 'Slide It In' - each one a prime slice of blues-tinged hard rock greatness.

And then came 1987. A major makeover in more ways than one. This was the birth of the 'Poodlesnake'. A whole new line-up, big hair, big productions, big budget videos, and big money with the success and sales this bought in the United States. Over the next few years the line-up changes became more frequent and Whitesnake became less of a band and more of a trademark for David Coverdale Inc. It also split opinion amongst his fan base, some feeling betrayed by the rejection of the Moody/Marsden blues-rock format in favour of the slick LA hair metal style. The success of this era of course added to Coverdale's legacy in a big way, until the excesses of that era were blown away in the 90's by the grunge revolution and then Coverdale's profile slipped.

Since the reformation of Whitesnake in 2002, Coverdale has to a certain extent struggled to marry the two versions of Whitesnake together. A lot of the original band's material was brought back into the live set to sit alongside the post 1987 big hitters. A smattering of old Purple classics such as 'Stormbringer 'and 'Burn' have also been reintroduced, and as a live act modern day Whitesnake has been extremely successful, especially on the festival circuit. Where Coverdale has struggled is with new material. 2008's 'Good to Be Bad', the first all new Whitesnake album in a very long time, didn't really set the world alight. So, will 'Forevermore' fare better and add some more weight to Coverdale's impressive legacy?

Things get off to a promising start with 'Steal your Heart Away', a rousing bluesy rocker with slide guitar and harmonica, evoking the spirit, to a certain extent, of some of the old Whitesnake magic. 'Love Will Set You Free' is a good effort too, a strong vocal melody and well a written song that wouldn't have been out of place on 'Slide It In'. Unfortunately things start to descend downhill from hereon in. 'Easier Said Than Done' is a cheesy power ballad in the vein of 'Is This Love'. With an opening line of "You've got my love to keep you warm, give you shelter from the storm" it's clear the old clichés are being brought out of the bag for this one and a fair few others. We all know what a huge hit 'Is This Love' was at the time, and we also know how it split opinions and alienated a lot of loyal fans at the time. 'Easier Said Than Done' tries to recreate it, but ends up a pale imitation with few redeeming features.

'One Of these Days', then is a saccharine up-tempo acoustic strummer, that is so middle of the road, it's got dotted white lines coursing through its veins, and 'Fair Thee Well', another acoustic based strummer, sounds like something Rod Stewart would have done in the Eighties.  Whilst a lot of the heavier tracks such as 'Tell Me How', 'I Need You', 'Love And Treat Me Right' & 'Dogs In the Street' unfortunately sound very derivative, almost Whitesnake by numbers, and the numbers don't always add up. It gives the impression the band are going through the motions without any real conviction. Guitarists Doug Aldrich and Reb Beech, Coverdale's sidekicks for the past 10 years, provide the usual technically proficient, but soulless guitar shredding solos on many of the tracks that these days are a bit of a turn off.

The lyrical content rarely strays from the usual subjects of love, tears, broken hearts etc. At least the Van Halen-esque heavy boogie of 'My Evil Ways' gives us some brief respite from the usual subject matter. It's left to the title track 'Forevermore' to finally provide redemption. It's a seven minute epic, building from an nice acoustic intro into a thumping mid-paced stomper with an eastern flavour reminiscent of Zeppelin's 'Kashmir' mixed with 'Still Of the Night', proof that Coverdale is still capable of producing something decent, but looking at the album as a whole, it's too little too late.

'Forevermore' then is not going to add much of any worth to Coverdale's legacy. There's a few good moments, but on the whole a very disappointing affair.

http://www.myspace.com/whitesnake

http://www.whitesnake.com/