In 2012, Richie was still in Bon Jovi. His departure was not too far in the future as he becomes unhappy with the direction of the band. His solo albums are his chance to do something he wants to do and I will say that this is better than anything Bon Jovi was doing at the time. Richie went deep in to his problems and laid them out bare for all of us to see. A very personal album, but based on what happens later, not sure it was a healing album for him. He was still fighting demons even after this release.
The album, ‘Aftermath of the Lowdown’, was released on September 12, 2012. Okay, that was the release date in Japan, the UK saw September 17th and North America saw the 18th (well, digital release, physical was even a week later on the 25th). Yeah, I hate these staggered release dates. Just do it all at once or none at all. The album only went to #149 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, but did go to #10 on the Hard Rock Album Charts, so it had moderate success. But the real success is in the music. A Richie Sambora solo album is always welcome especially when a Bon Jovi album was not in my world. Bon Jovi had lost the plot, but Richie found his way with this one.
The album opens with “Burn the Candle Down” and it is a wall of sound with an explosive opening, a killer riff and some distorted vocals by Richie. The guitar sounds like a siren warning of the onslaught of rock we were going to get. A heavy rocker, with drum beats that will break your balls. The solo shreds harder then anything BJ was doing at the time; heck, there are even two solos in this song. Damn it is killer. The song really gets the blood flowing and kicks off the album in style.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 