Ghalia Volt comes back to the forefront of the blues-rock scene with “Burn The House Down”, an album recorded in Nashville and produced by JD Simo. Done in just two days, it aims to capture the raw energy of a live session, looking for the original Hill Country blues crude sound and juke-joint spirit that define this Belgian artist. The research of gritty honesty becomes the defining feature of the whole recording.

However, the album, as a whole, can become rather flat on itself. By deliberately avoiding expansive solos, melodic bridges, or complex dynamic adjustments, the songs end up blending into one another a monochromatic rhythmic loop. Tracks like “No Ice Please” or the title track, “Burn The House Down,” start up with powerful riffs and gritty vocals, but the lack of contrast quickly drives them into a predictable structure. Except from “Wrong Horse” and the slow and more evocative atmosphere of “River Song”, which delivers a needed breath, the album pushes forward on a perhaps too uniform pattern.

The rawness of a rough diamond is really appealing but, without a proper and polish songwriting, the material loses some of its punch along the eleven album tracks. It is a suitable work to showcase Ghalia’s live energy, commitment, and undeniable power on stage, but in this studio format, it falls a bit short on nuances.