release date: May 21, 1996
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Hugh Padgham, David Foster, Mike Clink
label: Lava Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 2. "Spiders in My Bed" - 4. "Hold Me Through the Night" - 9. "Ringing" - 10. "God Bless You"
Studio album debut by Beth Hart released as Beth Hart Band after having released the self-released semi-official album Beth Hart and the Ocean of Souls in '93 (reissued as an archival Beth Hart album in 2009).
Immortal is the only album released as Beth Hart Band. The majority of the original album's twelve compositions have lyrics by Hart and music by Hart together with guitarist Jimmy Khoury and bassist Tal Herzberg. The fourth and last member of the band is drummer Sergio Gonzalez.
Stylistically, this is primarily blues rock, although, there's also a clear influence from heavy rock and grunge rock, which from my perspective makes it a bit of a bland experience - on the other hand, it's still a fine example of Hart's incredible vocal register, which is hard to imagine without Janis Joplin and her significant vibrato and intense dynamic range, and it's really her vocal performance that raises this far above the mediocre 'cause musically, there's simply too much generic and unoriginal heavy rock on a debut that makes you question if this is a Led Zeppelin or Pearl Jam tribute album.
