[rating=3.00]
Putting out their second album in a three year span, Chickenfoot has been one of the more active and sustained supergroups, and the band has effectively balanced its members’ individual career responsibilities equally. Joe Satriani released Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards in between albums and Chad Smith continued fulfilling his role as Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, which released I’m With You just over a month ago. Chickenfoot’s latest effort,Chickenfoot III, in reality the follow up to Chickenfoot [I], maintains the ideology that was felt on the first batch of material, though sound that defines the band continues to pull between the instrumental cosmic side of Joe Satriani’s guitar work and the Cabo-influenced Tequila vocal presence of Sammy Hagar.
Working within the musical constraints that a band develops has seemed to revise Satriani’s perspective on song structure, having to account for the lead singer variable. While this is apparent, Satriani’s entry in bridge and transitional points on the record solidify his presence even further as the mind behind the music, which greatly outshine Hagar’s lyrical content and vocal delivery. At times, there is a lack of contextual presentation between complex instrumental breaks and the traditional Red existence behind the microphone. Chickenfoot III is a hint that the band is skipping through the second chapter, but if a quad level wants to be reached successfully, the collective might need to further define the musical mesh.
