"As with Hellfire, which was somehow Walker's first new studio effort since 2009, Hornet's Nest features Tom Hambridge has producer, drummer and songwriting partner - and that's, no doubt, a principal reason for the continuity between the two projects. He imbues most everything with a tough muscularity that suits Walker, just as it did on the most recent Hambridge-helmed albums Buddy Guy and James Cotton. And, again like those two earlier legends, Walker's unique instrumental voicings - his guitar is by turns seething and then desperate, salacious or else sad - glues it all together".