Burning Rain – Epic Obsession
Frontiers Records
http://www.burningrain.net
Rating: B
Doug Aldrich signed a record contract ten years ago to do an album for Frontiers with his band Burning Rain. What happened next delayed the album for a decade. He joined the band Whitesnake. Busy on the road, as well as writing and recording two albums for the band, Burning Rain took a backseat. Finally, the record company decided that ten years was long enough to wait and Aldrich agreed. Joined by Keith St John on vocals, Sean McNabb on bass and Matt Star on drums, Aldrich wrote some songs, recorded them, slapped down some solos and, finally, the album was ready!
Sometimes a band can take too long in the studio and the end result is such that they wish they would have just banged it all out when it was fresh. On Epic Obsession, Aldrich and company smashed, bashed and crashed their way through the tunes, creating an energetic album with an edge to it. The music is not contrived. The songs are well written and the solos, while off the cuff, are crisp and impressive.
The album begins with the rocker “Sweet Little Baby Thing,” which one could sure hear being recorded by a young David Lee Roth! “Till You Die” and “My Lust Your Fate” have a harder edge to them and are two of the best rockers on the disc. “Heaven Gets Me By” and “Made For Your Heart” both would have made great David Coverdale ballads but St. John does fine putting his spin on the Whitesnake-esque songs. Another one that could have ended up on Whitesnake’s Forevermore is, hands down, the best tune on the album, “Out in the Cold Again.” This is a great epic tune!
There are nods to Whitesnake and a lot of other ‘70’s and ‘80’s hard rock bands, but, at the end of the day, this is fine slab of rock and roll, with plenty of solos for the boys and plenty of sweet shit ballads for the girls. True rockers will get a musical hard on listening to these guys pound out a rocking version of the Led Zeppelin classic “Kashmir.”
Whether the song is fast or slow, its a throwback to the classic era, or a more modern heavy tune, the band play hard and strong from start to finish. Doug Aldrich plays memorable, lickety-split guitar solos that will have your head spinning.
If you need a fix of ‘80’s melodic hard rock, but are also in the mood for something new then Epic Obsession will fill the void and make a fan out of you before you can say “Burning Rain” three times fast!
Track List:
1. Sweet Little Baby Thing
2. The Cure
3. Till You Die
4. Heaven Gets Me By
5. Pray Out Loud
6. Our Time Is Gonna Come
7. Too Hard To Break
8. My Lust Your Fate
9. Made For Your Heart
10. Ride The Monkey
11. Out In The Cold Again
12. When Can I Believe In Love
Bonus tracks:
13. Kashmir
14. Heaven Gets Me By (acoustic)
By Jeb Wright
