With Richard Hammerton again helming production, Bryant returns with a new studio album and digs deep for lyrical inspiration. Perhaps absolution, of a kind. His fiery and flexible guitar work is to the fore and again he is playing with colleagues who work for the song every time.

Title track Revelation makes for a sombre introduction to the set, Danny’s voice sounds desolate as he paints a picture with the words. This song connects directly to his love of Dylan, maybe in particular the cinematic tale of struggle Blind Willie McTell. The wiry trumpet only adds to the apocalyptic vibe, the bass hits the low notes with a steady slow pump. As a song about loss, this hits the spot. Four and a half minutes a strangled wah guitar seeps from the ensemble sound.

Isolate has a sway about it and biting guitar motifs giving way to a stately piano progression. Again Danny sounds as if the anger is bursting out of him and just about contained by the song. The crisp drumming punches in over the arpeggio’s as the number rolls long. The arrangement makes use of mid-range bass counter-melodies. The wah guitar cries throughout the song. On to Liars Testament which goes for an emphatic heavy sound, the vocal taut and seething as an ascending chordal run rachets up the tension. The drums boom out across time and when the horns cruise in on the upward build the guitar sounds all the more desperate and pained.

Someday The Rains Will Fall brings steady acoustic strumming, the singing is declamatory, like a biblical tale that must be told. So far, so wound up..but hopefully cathartic, for the writer. This dark-clouded retribution story has a tinge of The Band, mandolin trills et al. Must be the ghost of Levon Helm…doomy Hammond and all.

Truth Or Dare drops into a steady shuffle, one of many Bryant comfort zones in that he can always make this material jump. A throaty low-register organ break adds some Texas dust to the mix. A guitar solo leaps out from the key change. Shouting At The Moon is slow Spector, breathing electricity and Bryant leaning away from the harshness of voice for this one. For me the best song in this programme, with lovely guitar inserts.

Sister Decline is a fine bluesy tumble, heavy backbeat and subterranean bassline. It sounds like a warning. Next is a Howlin’ Wolf tune of yore, May I Have A Talk With You. Of course, Bryant idolised Hubert Sumlin for his biting guitar riffs and defined funky delivery on song after song. Last selection is the haunting, guitar-on-delay Yours For A Song beautifully sung and almost hymnal in band sound, singing guitar lines cutting into more staccato passages. An unusual song, Bryant’s kind of soul.

Way back in time, when I first saw Danny play at the Worcester Park Club and wrote about him, I had a private chat with his dad Ken, telling him of my incredulity that a young musician’s parents could be so supportive, given that my own father hated the music I favoured. He said “ Pete – Heather and I believe Danny has talent, therefore we would like him to be heard..to give him some real encouragement “. Bryant sure is making the best now of all that early help.

Pete Sargeant