Kris Barras Band

The last two years have been a time for many bands that were on the edge of ‘breaking out’ to look deeply at what they are doing and where they can go in a world of Brexit and Covid.
Sadly, a good few have thrown in the towel but when you are an ex-MMA cage fighter I would guess that that isn’t on the cards. To quote Barras: "Once Covid hit, it was a case of 'anything goes’, and I don't give a fuck anymore," he says with no preconceived plan for the album. "This is an album of no limitations; I felt that nothing was off the table for it."

Barras last album ‘Light It Up’ was a massive success and was taking KBB to new opportunities and then, suddenly, the world closed. “For a long time we realised that we didn't have control of ourselves anymore. I had some really dark times. I didn't want to get out of bed. I didn't want to do anything. It was really tough," the Devon-born Barras says.

So, here we have ‘Death Valley Paradise’, the follow up to ‘Light It Up’ and the result of feeling no limitations and two years of introspection and recovery.
Frankly, I’m shocked at just how good it is.

The producer for this album is Dan Weller (Enter Shikari, Bury Tomorrow, SiKth) and you can definitely get the feel of the power and space of Shikari or SiKth but coupled to the rawness and melodiousness of Barras writing. He has collaborated on writing with heavyweights such as Jonny Andrews (Three Days Grace, Fozzy), Bob Marlette (Alice Cooper, Airbourne, Rob Zombie), Blair Daly (Halestorm, Black Stone Cherry) and Zac Maloy (Shinedown, Tyler Bryant) but the songs are still very much Kris Barras+ rather than just adding him to the others writings. “That was brilliant because it gave me some different outlooks and just sent me off on a different path," he says, completely joyous about the experience. "I wrote more than half the album with Blair Daly," he says. "We've become good friends now."

There is, as there always has been, a lot of anger and passion in Barras music and all of that is here in spades but there is a sense of recognizing the world and the parlous state that Covid has thrown everyone into.
This feels like Kris Barras coming of age musically.

There are so many fine songs on here – ‘Wake Me When It’s Over’ has amazing scale and depth, the riffery on ‘These Voices’ will have heads shaking all over and ‘Who Needs Enemies’ is energetic, massive and deeply passioned.

Kris Barras is a genuine rock star and this is definitely another step forward. Monster album.