You know what I like about music besides good songwriting, production, performances and all the usual criteria a journalist like me looks for when listening to music? Don't know? Well I'll tell you and the answer is that more often then not, the songs themselves have special meanings as sometimes they are based on personal experiences or events that happened in either the bands career or the personal lives of one of the bands members. I've seen this happen in recent years with some bands I like and the special songs they write are always amazing and a joy to listen to with EDEN'S CURSE and ECLIPSE being two examples.

The reason I bring this up is because the band featured in this review are just one of those who have special meanings behind the songs they have written for their debut album which is already out and their name is THE MAGIC LIGHTNIN' BOYS. Formed a few years ago in Ohio in the USA, this is a band that you could almost say never happened.

Why? The main singer of this unit, Casey Gomez, couldn't devote much of his time to the band as his wife was battling the bastard known as cancer which is unfortunately a battle she lost. Because of this event, they decided to put the band on permanent hold but Casey wanted to keep going with the music after his wife had passed so they did just that.

Having restarted the band, Casey and the guitarist Brian Titcher got themselves a bass player in the form of Richie Lee and then eventually getting a fourth member in their drummer Kurt Lipphardt who was a good friend of the bands for many years. Having established the foundation of their band, work began on the songs and despite being influenced by a wide variety of genres, the overall sound has a Classic Rock vibe to it with a modern sound and some Blues/Country melodies thrown in too.

The end result, is a seven track debut self titled release which upon first listen, is a clear indication that despite the events described earlier in this review, they wanted to use music as a form of therapy while basing the melodies, the lyrics and the songs around the struggles their singer was facing during his late wife's cancer battle and you can really detect their passion for music as you listen to their songs.

From start to end, the debut from this Ohio quartet is a powerful and passionate approach to successfully modernizing Classic Rock while also using elements of Blues music too to allow anyone who has never heard the genre before to hear and enjoy it for the first time.

The songwriting on this is what really stands out the most as the majority of the songs are based around various events that happened during and after Casey's wifes cancer battle. Naturally of course, this is something that is always going to have a strong impact on anyone, so to express that through the wonderful art of music, is a fantastic achievement in itself as there is no greater therapy then music in my opinion for when you are feeling down, scared, afraid and so on as there will always be a song to help you through any situation.

The use of both Classic and Blues Rock combined with the excellent songwriting, the passionate performances and indeed the superb production, make this an album you are always going to enjoy listening to as I know I certainly did when I replayed it a few times while finding the words for this review.

Bottom line, the debut from THE MAGIC LIGHTNIN' BOYS is an excellent and very well done approach to modernizing Classic Rock while also opening up opportunities to enjoy Blues Rock as well and the result is something that I highly recommend you check out. Even if you're not a fan of Classic or Blues Rock, your mind may become changed if you give this one a listen which I highly encourage you to do.