"If you try to follow what's selling right now, you're always a day late and a dollar short." (Zakk Wylde)

THE NEW BLACK play Rock. Real Rock, really heavy. With all the good stuff that comes along with it: hooklines, leads, riffs galore.

Just imagine Black Label Society inviting the Nickelback guy over for some Thin Lizzy covers, all dressed up in Pantera shirts.

So it's real music - neither restricted by flavor-of-the-week bullshit nor old and dusty. But it’s well played, damn well written, catchy and heavy. The quality is no coincidence: All players have been doing this in a lot of bands, like Sinner, Runamok, Abandoned or MCF, to name a few.

The reaction was immediate: Shortly after announcing the formation of the band and spreading the word, the pre-production of the self-titled debut album earned THE NEW BLACK "Unsigned Band Of The Month" or equivalent in not one, but four major magazines in Germany: Metal Hammer, Rock Hard, Guitar and Rocks - a feat that few bands achieved.

Canada’s BW&BK wrote: “[This is] The Real Thing as opposed to the often disposable Next Big Thing. THE NEW BLACK makes it on sheer over-the-top delivery and very obvious love for the simple rock-driven life.” Germany’s Guitar took note of the “assured sense of style and passion”, while Metal Hammer simply stated: “Whoever said that bands can’t form their own sound anymore these days, should listen to this – and then shut up!”

Various US and European radio stations then picked up on THE NEW BLACK, and the band - at that point still unsigned - was asked to write the title track for an American road movie called “Ballad Of Broken Angels”.

One ace card in their deck is obviously singer Fludid, who has been compared to “Zakk Wylde, James Hetfield and Phil Anselmo” (Rock Hard), and “sometimes even Mike Patton in a 'sane' state of mind” (Metal Hammer). The screams, the roaring, the harmonies, they’re all there, but most importantly, the guy can actually sing.

Add to this the high standard of craftsmanship, shredding guitars, a well-developed sense of melody and a professional work ethic, and you get a very, very solid piece of metallic rock. The debut album “The New Black” ranges from the mighty grooves of ‘Everlasting’ to the stomping heaviness of ‘Why I Burn’, from the classic rock of ‘Simplify’ to the angry metal of ‘Welcome To Point Black’, from the bluesy Southern feel of ‘Ballad Of Broken Angels’ to the fast catchy hooks of ‘More Than A Man’ - and everything in between that doesn’t suck.

And it all happened because Schwarz and Leim got drunk at a cocktail booth at a summer festival, talked riffs - and came to the only logical conclusion: a new band. Thank God this joke turned into music quickly, three numbers turned into six, then nine... But then again, a good song is a good song is a good song.