After many years of hard work Frozen Rain finally
released the first album. A dream came true for Kurt
Vereecke, the founder of the group. In the early
80s he formed his own group, No Problems, which name
later changed into Frozen Rain. This was in 1983,
the group toured in Belgium, won several awards, had a beautiful little
success of esteem but in 1988, the story ended.
Kurt continued to write in a style of music he had always loved, AOR.
He brought together musicians and set up a new group, Rhyana.
They recorded six pieces and gave a few concerts. A few months later
for personal reasons, the singer left the band.
After being involved in some other projects (including writing songs
for children) Kurt was determined to make his dream a reality and
he started up Frozen Rain again to record a first album. So, let's
have a closer look to that album now.
It must be said that the AOR on this record is very, very good. Of
course our friend Kurt had time to polish his baby. The music is entirely
rooted in the 80s. Although the guitars are present (the album offers
some great guitar solos) they share the melodies with equal layers
of keyboards (Kurt his instrument). The album has five different lead
singers, most quite unknown. On the other hand there are some guests
that fans of the genre should know like Tommy Denander
(found on almost all the songs - his guitar sound and style are very
recognizable), drummer Daniel Flores (Mind's Eye)
and Steve Newman (Newman). Kurt is in good company.
The music is similiar to the music from bands like Loverboy,
Journey, Toto, Newman,...
Listening to the album is a great pleasure and the production is very
good. Fans of the genre really should have a listen to this album.
You can't go wrong. An excellent AOR album and undoubtedly one of
the best of this year.
Review by Dreamhunter4
Rating: 85/100 |
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