Black 7 – Look Inside

Black 7
Look Inside
October 06^th, 2021
Playing time: 01:08:59

At the age of eighteen, guitarist Lars Totzke from Hanover began his musical journey. At first, he played in several local bands before founding his own band in the mid-90s. With Madrigal there were some local releases and live performances. After the split, he then played in an acoustic trio before hanging up his guitar in 2005. For many years he withdrew from the music business. Now he dares to make a new start with his project “Black 7”. The first sign of life was “Look Inside”, an instrumental CD at the beginning of October, in which he put his instrument, the electric guitar, in the centre of attention.

The opener “Unleashed” sounds promising. Hard riffs, beautiful melodies. You can hear right away that there is a guitar virtuoso at work here who is not just self-absorbedly plucking the sides. With a full band, this would certainly be a smash hit. But Lars Totzke can also be quieter, as he clearly proves on “Lift Up”. A beautiful guitar ballad. “Awakening” sounds more riff-heavy again. And of course, with beautiful melody lines. Another ballad follows with “In My Dream”. Some folkloristic elements flow into “Discover”, along with vocalises performed by a woman. And it continues in this style, mostly rocking, as with “Never Stop”, “Years Ago”, “Mysterious World” or ballad-like again with “A Story To Tell” and the title song “Look Inside”, where the strings dominate at first.  

Although the songs are well composed and varied, the spark doesn’t really want to jump over. It somehow lacks that certain something. I think the album would unfold its full effect with clear rock vocals. At least I can only encourage the guitarist to gather more musicians around him and record an album with a full band.

Black 7 – Lead The Way (Visualizer and playthrough): https://youtu.be/sMxkkKwrcKw

Lineup:

Lars Totzke – Guitars

Track list:

• Unleashed
• Lead The Way
• Lift Up
• Awakening
• In My Ddream
• Discover
• Never Stop
• Look Inside
• Out Of The Box
• Years Ago
• Hear My Voice
• Myterious World
• A Story To Tell
• Time Of My Imagination