Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Burning Rain
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 1999
Length: 54:38
Rating: 4/5
This is a great move by the Italian label Frontiers Records. Hard rock outfit Burning Rain are about to drop their third studio album, »Epic Obssession«, which was supposed to come out ten years ago. Hello? Alongside the announced release of the new album, Frontiers Records have also reissued the band’s first two studio albums: the debut »Burninig Rain« from 1999 and its follow-up »Pleasure To Burn« from 2000. Whitesnake fans, listen up! Because this is where Doug Aldrich enters the story!
For those who don’t know the backstory of Burning Rain, here’s a hint: the band was founded in 1998 by two seasoned musicians, guitar virtuoso Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, ex-Dio, ex-Lion, ex-Hurricane, ex-Bad Moon Rising) and outstanding singer Keith St. John (ex-Montrose, ex Medicine Wheel). Rounding the band out into a classic quartet were bassist Ian Mayo (ex-Bad Moon Rising, ex-Bangalore Choir, ex-Hericane Alice) and drummer Alex Macarovich (ex-Steelheart).
The band recorded its studio debut right the following year, and the release followed. Awfully fast, in other words. That means the song sketches were older and had been ripening for a good while before they were laid down on studio tape. Why? Because the songs on the debut are incredibly polished and compositionally detailed down to the last bit – defined by their motifs. Doug Aldrich, who gathered plenty of experience over years of maturing in his previous band Bad Moon Rising, proves already on Burning Rain’s studio debut what an exceptional guitarist he is, effortlessly delivering instantly memorable guitar phrases in the vein of the biggest hard rock bands (of pioneering importance) that shaped the sound and style of Burning Rain (and shaped Aldrich as a musician).
Considering that by 1999 pretty much everything in hard rock had been laid bare and there were no more secrets left in the genre, what grabs your attention about Burning Rain first and foremost is the extraordinary passion the musicians bring to their playing. That’s the tip of the scales that puts this album into a higher league of hard rock releases.
Even the illustrious Ronnie James Dio himself couldn’t stay indifferent to the solos and riffs Doug Aldrich showed off on this album, and just three years later he drafted Aldrich into his band Dio. Keith St. John didn’t go unnoticed either: almost at the same time as Aldrich joined Dio, he took over lead vocal duties in the legendary Montrose (right up until Ronnie Montrose’s death last year). Funny enough, both of the later employers of Aldrich and St. John were Ronnies (and sadly both are gone now).
Eleven songs that offer plenty of variety, and it’s not hard to pick out the musical influences. Can’t Turn Back To Love is a mellow semi-acoustic number that pulls Whitesnake tricks, while the link to Whitesnake is spelled out more clearly in the upbeat Fool No More. Cherry Groove is a typical offshoot inspired by Led Zeppelin’s »Houses Of The Holy« era, Jungle Queen also takes a poisonous swipe at LZ, while Can’t Cure The Fire is a rowdy stampede drawing on the legacy of the fastest riffing excursions of the »man in black« and his Rainbow.
These nods don’t just show up in the choice of lead guitar phrases, but also in Keith St. John’s vocal approach, which – in its vocal character and the way he shapes a melody and places emotion in the verses – occasionally flirts with the styles of greats like Ronnie James Dio, Joe Lynn Turner and Robert Plant. Keith St. John is today considered an unjustly overlooked vocalist; his range and presence are so strong and dominant in the songs that they challenge even the greatness of Garry Cheronea (Extreme). Keth St. John’s vocal tone is incredibly close to another top-notch American vocalist. That’s Kelly Hansen (ex-Hurricane, Foreigner). And so there’s even a »Foreigner-ish« Making My Heart Beat (and interestingly, it leans more toward the sound of today’s Foreigner, because Keith St. John’s voice resembles Kelly Hansen’s), which of course comes with a much sharper, wound-up and raw production.
So Burning Rain are a top-shelf hard rock attraction when it comes to vocals and guitar! Their debut, which after fourteen years has finally gotten its first reissue, proves with its songwriting strength that it passed the test of time with ease and that its primal hard rock heritage just won’t rust. All the passion this excellent debut radiates is cemented and pushed to the front even further thanks to two more important factors. Woven into the whole thing is an imprint of blues rhetoric and funk groove, which the opening Smoothe Locomotion confirms in an instant. Such an authentic calling card of the album’s hard rock rhetoric then doesn’t let up from there to its very last second.
Lineup
Keith St. John – vocals
Doug Aldrich – guitar
Ian Mayo – bass
Alex Makarovich – drums
Production
Doug Aldrich
Tracklist
1. Smooth Locomotion
2. Superstar Train
3. Jungle Queen
4. Making My Heart Beat
5. Fool No More
6. Cherry Grove
7. Can’t Cure The Fire
8. Can’t Turn Your Back On Love
9. Heaven’s Garden
10. Tokyo Rising
11. Seasons Of Autumn
12. Smooth Locomotion* (acoustic version)
13. Can’t Turn Your Back On Love* (acoustic version)
* … bonus tracks available on the album’s reissue (2013)
