Burning Rain formed in 1998 by guitarist god Doug Aldrich and vocalist Keith St. John, who released their debut way back in 1999 to rave reviews, and follow up record “Pleasure To Burn”, which showed a matured Aldrich-St John collaboration that gained even higher praise than the first album. In 2001, Aldrich joined Dio and later departed in 2003 as he was approached by David Coverdale to join a newly reformed Whitesnake, while St. John joined forces with guitar legend Ronnie Montrose. While still in Whitesnake, Aldrich started working on new Burning Rain music, which saw the light of day in 2013 as the album “Epic Obsession”. Their third release was again met with enthusiasm from fans and critics alike. Aldrich would later leave Whitesnake and join The Dead Daisies and Revolution Saints, which left Burning Rain on an extended hiatus.
Now, finally a new album is ready for release! “Face The Music” is a real blues infused hard rock record, featuring the revamped line-up including the amazing Blas Elias (Slaughter) on drums and Brad Lang (Y&T) on bass.
Opening Track ‘Revolution’ gets proceedings off to a great start with its bluesy swagger and reminds me of classic ‘Four Winds’ era TANGIER. My favourite track on the album is showcased next, the excellent in your face rocker ‘Lorelei’, with trademark Doug Aldrich guitars and top notch vocal from Keith St John. The more modern sounding ‘Nasty Hustle’ leads us into the first single from the record, the melodic ‘Midnight Train’ that features the outstanding rhythm section of Brad Lang & Blas Elias.
The stripped back and more acoustic sounding ‘Shelter’ builds up into a KINGDON COME type monster of a tune, and highlights why Keith St John is currently fronting the excellent KINGDOM COME on your in the USA at the moment. Title track ‘ Face The Music’ evokes the sound of the classic 70s southern rock bands, such as BLACKFOOT mixed With a modern DEAD SAISES sound. ‘ Beautiful Road’ s just pure LED ZEP and I’ve not heard anything as near to this since the KINGDOM COME debut release in 1988. The cheesy ‘Hit & Run’ with its 80s cock-rock type lyrics is a winner in my book, before the WHITESNAKE influenced ‘If Its Love’ . The excellent ‘Hideaway’ leads us to the final track ‘Since I’m Loving You’ which brings this great effort to a close
All in all a great effort and fans of KINGDOM COME, early WHITESNAKE and LED ZEPPELIN will love this release, and BURNING RAIN has made the wait for new music well and truly worth it.
Tracklisting:
1. Revolution
2. Lorelei
3. Nasty Hustle
4. Midnight Train
5. Shelter
6. Face The Music
7. Beautiful Road
8. Hit And Run
9. If It’s Love
10. Hideaway
11. Since I’m Loving You
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