by Alan SeveraRock & roll can be a thankless business — you can find yourself in the wilderness for a long stretch even if you have something like a decade's worth of classic top-notch work to be proud of. Nazareth found themselves in that situation, but, against considerable odds, managed to end ten years of recording absence in 2008 with The Newz, an unexpected return to form. (By the way, the same rather miraculous creative rejuvenation happened that same spring with their contemporaries Uriah Heep.) Although not at all new in stylistic content, this album is possibly their best since they started losing ground in 1981. It stands up really well in comparison to their classic '70s back catalog, and provides hope that they might just be poised to finally continue with that kind of quality after all those lean decades. Dan McCafferty still leads with the gravel-voiced charge that any AC\u002FDC fan should appreciate, Pete Agnew still mans the bass, his son Lee Agnew now replacing the deceased Darrell Sweet on drums, and Jimmy Murrison, who joined in 1995 (having been in the same band as Lee Agnew at the time), is obviously up to fulfilling the challenge of keeping the sharp Nazareth guitar sound as vital as ever....