Kris Pohlmann: Relentless Review

Six years on from the release of Feel Like Going Home, Kris Pohlmann is back with a brand new album titled Relentless. To use the words of the artist himself, it’s been six long years, where life has been relentless throwing everything at Kris. Starting from the birth of his son Freddie (you guessed it, he’s been named after the legendary Freddie King), through the global pandemic causing tours to be cancelled, loss of 4 family members, all the way to two slipped disc procedures, this British-born German guitarist has experienced the good, the bad, the ugly, and channeled it all into this 10-track record.

A fiery riff on a heavily distorted guitar, a cowbell-infused drum beat, and an anthemic chorus powered by soulful backing vocals and a soothing piano part – that’s all packed in the first minute of the album’s opener “It’s Only Love” – also released as a single earlier this year. The artist sings in his signature gritty fashion about love being the only thing we’re fighting for. “Same Old Lies” was built upon a funky, Hammond-bolstered groove. It features some tasty bluesy guitar licks throughout. This is followed by another heavy track called “Change Your Mind” – the cheeky guitar riff accompanied by an airtight collaboration of the rhythm section in the opening bars of this song sound almost like the early 90s Red Hot Chilli Peppers on steroids, completely mind-blowing.

The album’s second single “Don’t Leave” is a ballad in 6/8 time signature. According to Pohlmann, the music for “Don’t Leave” was written back in 2015, but it was the loss of his father in 2022 that nudged Kris to write the lyrics for it thus finishing this beautiful piece. The song is bursting with emotion, crowned by heavenly backing vocals. “Done Somebody Wrong” is a moody mid-tempo number that dates back to 2009. It’s based on a simple chord progression allowing for more freedom to experiment with different guitar tones and effects, most notably delay and wah, giving this tune a truly unique color. Experimental approach carries on through to the album’s sixth track “Unreal”. Despite being deeply rooted in heavy grungy rock, this mesmerizing work of art gives center stage to Middle Eastern samples, exotic scales, and even some Mongolian-style chanting. The chorus hits a somewhat darker note, reminiscent of modern-day Alice in Chains. Not for the faint-hearted and surely defying any genre boundaries, this bold track truly is something special (Psst! Want to know a secret? It’s my absolute favourite track of the album). Serving as a resolution to all the tension build-up and dissonance of “Unreal”, what follows is a much mellower, AOR-style “Feel Like the World Got the Better of Me”.

The final third of the album includes a classic rock banger “Look At Me Now” – a song about overcoming setbacks, a soulful ballad “Never Said Goodbye” featuring insane guitar work by Kris and lastly, to wrap up the album, “Serenity”. This instrumental finale consists of a quiet piano part upon which a soaring Gilmouresque guitar solo is built.

All ten songs have been written by Kris himself, and produced by the veteran German blues-rock producer Martin Meinschäfer. Relentless is a turning point for this award-winning artist as it represents a genre shift towards more of an album-oriented and classic rock, however blues remains the foundation and the main source of inspiration. As Pohlmann would say “it’s rock music but with blues in its DNA”. To celebrate this fine piece of work released via Black Penny Records, Kris Pohlmann and his band have kicked off a spring tour across Germany, with a European leg due in the second half of the year.

The Review: 8/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– It’s Only Love
– Unreal
– Change Your Mind

The Big Hit

– It’s Only Love