Frozen Rain is a very interesting project of the Belgian multi instrumentalist Kurt Vereecke. Kurt has invited many musicians of which some are unknown while others we know from bands like Radioactive, Mind's Eye, Newman and Norway. The result of this cooperation is a perfectly played and produced debut album. After hearing the first samples a while ago I have been waiting impatiently for this release. Last year was very successful for sleaze rock. This year it looks like there's a real AOR revival. We can count the Frozen Rain album as one of the very best AOR albums of the year. I like this album even more than the Work Of Art CD that is praised almost everywhere. The CD is as good as the CD's that came out in the late 80's so all symphatisants of AOR should check out this album.

Waiting for you is a fantastic opener that has characteristic rhythm guitars and a pulsing bass. The song is coloured with nice keys and most important, sensational and extremely melodic vocal lines. Such music should be played on the radio more often. Things go on with Wire of love. There's a nice guitar in the background and the keys deliver some firework but everything is perfectly in balance. In the next song singer Maurice Saelmans takes over the microphone. There's no better title than Music keeps me alive. In fact, it is worth to live for this kind of music. The ballad My heart believes it's true is another good song. A perfect song to listen to in the evening. Red light zone returns to the style of the first songs on the album. Here my attention went to the guitars played by Steve Newman. A lot of bands in the 80's had music like this in their repertoire. On the run starts with heavy guitars and you expect a hard rock song but soon you'll find out that Kurt holds on to the AOR style just like you can hear it throughout the whole album. This makes that AOR fans perfectly know what they can expect when they listen to this CD. Park Café sounds a bit like classic Def Leppard but is a bit tender because of the keys that are added here. If you like Diving For Pearls, you'll love this one for sure. Never be a fool again brings back memories to Foreigner and Honeymoon Suite. Your Love has everything to become a hit. The song deserves the Nobel Prize for the guitar solos (à la Neal Schon) in the intro and the middle of the song and the excellent keyboard work. One of the strongest songs on the album and one of my personal favourites. Not so dynamic as its predecessor is Say that you love me, a very emotional song. A doctor would recommend this song as the perfect medicine for everyone who suffers from a nervous breakdown. Little Angel sounds like Foreigner and I was happy and surprised to find such a good tune at the end of the album. The last song is called Tomorrow. It's a perfect song to listen to when you come home after a day of hard work. The voice of the singer sounds velvety and the lead piano is superior.

The blue CD cover with ice gives the impression this is a cold album. Nothing is more misleading cause this is a very HOT album that gives hope for the future. My wish is to see more albums like this coming out so this genre can take back its lost place. Let's hope this review may encourage some radio stations to play this album on the radio cause it has a lot of hit potential. Album strongly recommended for AOR lovers!

Review by Guitarrizer