Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Sunstorm
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 42:31
Rating: 3.5/5
If you remember the previous Sunstorm album, »House Of Dreams«, you know that it, the band’s second studio album, was really a polished melodic upgrade of the debut in terms of production. After an album as lovely as »House Of Dreams«, the question was how much further Sunstorm could possibly evolve and what they could offer beyond that much-praised record.
»Emotional Fire« is no letdown, far from it. It’s a great album of classic melodic retro rock sound, inherited from the legacy of the eighties, and Sunstorm stay right in the zone where they feel most at home. Smart. Why poke around where you could get burned (as in trying out other playgrounds of musical and artistic expression)? But it also means the band’s creative development has ground to a halt.
Everything on the new album revolves around the big voice of Joe Lynn Turner. The kind of arrangements the third Sunstorm album keeps up proved a long time ago to be tailor-made for this seasoned singer’s unmistakable vocal stamp, the one that marks the legendary Rainbow albums, then »Masters And Slaves« by metal forefathers Deep Purple, as well as all the albums of his solo career. Turner and AOR! A winning combination. Always has been! And the new Sunstorm album is no different.
You’ll be surprised to spot songs on the album that were originally performed by sweet pretty boy Michael Bolton (Lay Down Your Arms, Gina), as well as the unforgettable long-legged filly Cher (Emotional Fire, You Wouldn’t Know Love). The idea of including these songs probably came from Joe Lynn Turner himself, since he also appeared on the originals as a studio backing vocalist on the albums of Michael Bolton and Cher. Next to the rest of the material it all fits nicely into the album’s form, though it’s not hard to pick out the traditional eighties approach to arranging, compared with the parts of the album that are, compositionally, much, much younger in character. Of course, every song from first to last is played in true Sunstorm manner. Perfectly worked-out backing harmonies under bombastic, AOR-infectious choruses, a prominent wall of guitar phrases that gently dominates the other instruments throughout, and, as expected, middle sections spiced with guitar solos, deepening the drama of the songs and lifting their dynamics. The songs hit that theatrical, moody »crescendo« one and all, naturally in polished, melodically flawless chorus lines. So arrangement-wise, this is once again a cunningly crafted AOR album. Joe Lynn Turner keeps his vocal power and interpretive rhetoric intact and again »fires on all cylinders«, marked by that noble coating on his chrome-plated vocal cords, which once again velvety-smoothly caress the listener’s receptors.
This time the main songwriters were Swedish musicians seasoned in the Sunstorm camp: Robet Sall (Work Of Art), Johan Stentorp (Time Gallery) and Soren Kronquist. The Sunstorm crew, that is JLT plus »borrowed« members of Pink Cream 69, called on these three arrangers. Given the pedigree of their earlier high-quality work, the call wasn’t made in vain, and songs like Torn In Half, The Higher You Rise and especially the opener Never Give Up deliver the melodic rock peaks of the new album. The excellent brother duo of Tom and James Martin, who wrote most of the material for the previous Sunstorm album, »House Of Dreams«, is on this one with just a single song (the half-ballad closer All I Am). It’s precisely the collaboration with other songwriters that tips the scales in favor of »House Of Dreams«, since the job of »Emotional Fire« is, more or less, to maintain the expressive level of »House Of Dreams«, which really says nothing new, while filling out the running time with four covers of originals from eighties melodic rock classics.
Despite a few »warnings« in this review that »Emotional Fire« brings nothing new for Sunstorm, it’s still a shrewdly put-together melodic rock album in the retro mold, without a single weak spot in the arrangements. It’s highly infectious and holds the level of the previous two studio works. Fans of the previous two Sunstorm albums will, with a clear conscience, add »Emotional Fire« to their expressive CD collections devoted to the face and craft of melodic rock.
Line-up
Joe Lynn Turner – vocals
Dennis Ward – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
Uwe Reitenauer – guitar
Justin Dakey – keyboards
Chris Schmidt – drums
Production
Dennis Ward
Track list
- Never Give Up (3:44)
- Emotional Fire (3:52)
- Lay Down Your Arms (3:47)
- You Wouldn’t Know Love (3:51)
- Wish You Were Here (3:35)
- Torn In Half (3:51)
- Gina (4:00)
- The Higher You Raise (3:59)
- Emily (3:45)
- Follow Your Heart (4:03)
- All I Am (4:00)
