Before I got this CD to review from Brian here at Rockeyez I honestly didn’t know much about FROZEN RAIN except that I heard it was being touted as a fine new AOR release from a group based out of Belgium.

Well, I did a little research and found out that the project is the mastermind of keyboard player Kurt Vereecke. And as the story goes, Vereecke and the name FROZEN RAIN, have been around since 1986 but the original group dissolved after which Vereecke formed another Belgian act named RHYANA. That lasted until Vereecke decided to become a school teacher and subsequently decided to start writing songs for children along with a series of teaching books.

In 2001 Vereecke decided to resurrect the FROZEN RAIN name and started to write some new material with Swedish lyricist Andy Flash and began to assemble a group of musicians to bring the project back to life.

Fast forward to 2008 and finally here is the debut from FROZEN RAIN.

The first FROZEN RAIN release is obviously a product of well-seasoned and veteran musicians and that certainly shows as the album is a smooth and well-written body of work.

The album opens with the song “Waiting For You” and it’s basically an AOR-lovers wet dream with the styles of bands like HONEYMOON SUITE and to a slightly lesser extent SURVIVOR brought to the forefront of your mind immediately. The albums second track “Wire Of Love” is light and “airy” with its feel good vibe and melodic playing all around.

The record continues on with the tone set in the opening tracks and rattles off more melody (and keyboards) than you can shake a stick at! I hear a lot of different influences from the greats of the AOR genre. And at times I even hear more obscure influences like on “My Heart Believes It’s True” and the album closing “Tomorrow” which reminds me of New York-based AOR act the PETER STEVENS BAND.

It should be mentioned that the talented Swedish guitarist Tommy Denander lends his talents to this record… but then again it seems if you’re talking about the European AOR scene these days what doesn’t Denander play on!

Review by Mark Balogh