The first time I heard about FROZEN RAIN, CrossRocks had just been born. It took instigator Kurt Vereecke 5 years to give life to his project, but as the saying goes, good things are worth the wait, and the efforts of the musician were not in vain. One can even say that our Belgian friend took care of his baby very well and you can hear that on the whole album.

Kurt has been assisted by many seasoned musicians of the AOR scene, among them: Tommy Denander (found on almost all titles), Jim Santos (Norway), drummer Daniel Flores (Mind's Eye) & the English Steve Newman. Kurt's ambition was clearly to walk in the footsteps of his idols, and it also means that everything on this disc recalls the 80 years. In other words, don’t expect innovation, the charm you will find in the reproduction of old recipes brought with enthusiasm and professionalism. It’s a pleasure listening to these light and easy accessible songs. The arrangements are provided by many keyboards, which is normal cause it is the instument of Kurt, but without killing the guitars. There are indeed beautiful solos throughout the CD as on Your Love and Little Angel for example.

Among the five vocalists, I admit I have a preference for the timbre of Dirk Cauwels, a local singer who deserves to be more well known. Dirk sings on two tracks: the mid tempo Say That You Love Me, and On The Run. Also Johan Waem delivers a remarkable performance. Among the other vocalists we have Peter De Zutter, Maurice Saelmans & Ollie Oldenburg who was a member of Zinatra after the departure of Joss Mennen. They all do a pretty good job.

It should be noted that most of the songs have a strong Scandinavian touch: the presence of Denander without doubt, but the influences of Kurt Vereecke also go in this direction and it is primarily to this audience Frozen Rain seems to be addressing. Recommended for all fans of this kind of music.

Review by Cédric Liegeois

Rating: 86 %