Artist: Stormzone
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2007
Stormzone are Irish melodic hard rockers from Belfast. New name, old hands. Look at the cover, read the band name, take a closer look at the logo, and your mind drifts straight back to the eighties and the n.w.o.b.h.m. movement. But what we get on “Caught In The Act” has precious little in common with the sharpness, aggression, uncompromising attitude and darkness of n.w.o.b.h.m., even though it smells of the traditional all the way through.
Traditional as in British hard rock that draws from the legacy of Rainbow and Deep Purple. Stormzone also use Hammond organ to back up their guitar riffs. Nervous Breakdown is a textbook example of what can grow out of Rainbow. But the guys also carry a later AOR pulse (the tracks Beating Of A Heart, Tuggin At My Heartstrings, closer Rock On Through The Night), which developed in the British Isles in the second half of the eighties and somehow still manages today, albeit in strict opposition, to produce excellent records by excellent acts (Shy, FM, Shadowman, Newman, Heartland,…). And what do you get if you cross FM with Rainbow? Provocatively put, something that sits somewhere between Praying Mantis and “post 1986” Uriah Heep. The latter especially for the way the backing vocals get layered over the basic track. In combining melody and punch, these last two comparisons come perhaps closest to a picture of Stormzone.
From the first two paragraphs alone we can tell Stormzone are no greenhorns. Tours with Danger Danger, Danny Vaughn (ex-Tyketto) and Jeff Scott Soto (Journey), while singer John Harv Harbinson is a man with a lot more miles on the clock, who sang with Sweet Savage, Emerald, No Sweat and Den Of Thieves before joining Stormzone. First and foremost, the band’s sound is defined by John Harv Harbinson’s excellent vocals and Keith Harris’s guitar virtuosity, which astonishes with some truly dizzying acrobatics up and down the fretboard. Stormzone are convincing both in the ballads (Stranger Things Have Happened, Crying In The Rain) and in the hot-blooded hard rockers (Spellbound, Call Of The Wild). The band has a first-rate feel for setting up a core motif – a punchy riff that they manage to dress in a tasty, full melodic cloak – and with a clear, clean production and a decisive, pushed-forward melodic bass line, the whole thing really breathes with full lungs. The vocals are strong and authoritative. His explosiveness and expressiveness hit hardest right in the highest registers, and John even has some of the sensuality and warmth of a Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet) in his repertoire.
For a debut, “Caught In The Act” is an album of thoroughly enviable quality. It offers a solid base on which the band can calmly build up its sound. It’s convincing both on the production side and the artistic one. The atmosphere of island melancholy is present in just the right dose. In short, for all of you tied to the British tradition, interwoven with AOR “eighties” touches, it’s a worthwhile test. Stormzone have a tight-knit lineup with fluid communication between them, and the execution of the material on “Caught In The Act” definitely confirms it. This is a band from whom expectations of a step up, especially when it comes to songwriting, are completely realistic. The debut really has no duds, and in the future the band has to build, first and foremost, on the recognizability of its own sound.
Lineup
John Harv Harbinson – vocals
Keith Harris – guitar
Stephen Prosser – keyboards
Peter Rondo Macken – bass
Julian Watson – drums
Production
Mudd Wallace
Tracklist
1. Spellbound
2. Hold Onto Her Love
3. Stranger Things Have Happened
4. Nervous Breakdown
5. Crying In The Rain
6. Call Of The Wild
7. Beating Of A Heart
8. New World
9. Tuggin’ At My Heartstrings
10. Sky High
11. Rock On Through The Night
Album length: 49.58
