Eleven months on from their riff-heavy, retro-rockin’ debut ‘On The OId Kings Road’ one of Denmark’s finest live bands, Highway Child, are back with an excellent followup, taking us back to the Age of Aquarius with a continued firm grip on rock’n’roll legacy.

Where the debut was a solid tribute to late 1960s and early 1970s hard rock in general and Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin specifically, ‘Sanctuary Come’ sees the quartet moving on (and up) with better songs and a much more varied expression, adding acts like The Who, Cream, The Kinks and The Beatles to their musical honor roll.

The hard, riff-based R’n’R is still there, most notably in ‘Turn Me On’ (featuring Lorenzo Woodrose of Baby Woodrose fame), ‘You You You’ and ‘Take You Down’, but the overall, impressively authentic feel is “pop and expand your mind” psychedelia – even though I know their drug of choice is Fernet Branca.

Songs like ‘In The End’ and ‘When The Sun Burned The Ground’ have unshaved women in flowery robes dancing before my inner eye, opening track ‘Red, White And Blue’’s spaced-out outro would do wonders for any acid-trip, while beautiful closing ballad ‘Born On The Run’ reminds me of The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ in much the same way ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ reminds me of ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’.

Highway Child have been personal favorites since I first caught them live and I thoroughly enjoyed ‘On The Old Kings Road’. With ‘Sanctuary Come’, however, they enter the very top of contemporary acts saluting one the most exciting periods in rock history.

Genre: Rock
Who: Highway Child
Album: Sanctuary Come
Label: Backdoor Records/Gateway Music
Year: 2009
Country: Denmark
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
In The End – When The Sun Burned The Ground – Sanctuary Come – Once Is Once Too Much – You You You – Born On The Run