AOR from Belgium!!! Well, if we go back into time,
we had a great AOR band called K.WEST coming out of Belgium, but that
was a very underground kind of band, although the other AOR band I
remember is even more obscure, as that was KATE’S DESIRE, whom
released this amazing Demo Tape in the middle of the 1990s. Also there
was a band called DAKOTA, but with a name like that the confusion
with the US legends they also did not have a breakthrough.
Then we had a guy called KURT VEREECKE, who recorded
some great demos a few years ago. He then informed me he wanted to
release something official as a band and look here, FROZEN
RAIN is the name of the project and their first CD is official.
It has been released on a new German label called AVENUE OF
ALLIES and musically FROZEN RAIN is all about pure AOR that
is not really far away from acts like STREET TALK,
WORK OF ART, MYLAND, HUGO,
RADIOACTIVE and such. With a bunch of different Belgian
lead singers (quite unknown, but all sounding pretty good actually),
great 80s keyboard and guitarwork of KURT VEREECKE and amazing NEAL
SCHONish melodic guitarwork of TOMMY DENANDER (here he is again!),
FROZEN RAIN’s first CD is a must-have for fans of classic FORTUNE/JOURNEYesque
Bombastic mid 80s American AOR. The song “Never be a
fool again” is the absolute highlight here, which is
almost in the same league as the both US bands called FORTUNE (the
1985 MCA signed one-off and the 1990s US band) and it also reminds
me a lot of the TOUCH named band of the ROCKY 4 soundtrack classic,
so this is CLASSIC 80S AOR at it’s best! Other highlights are
uptempo AOR rockers like “Park café”,
“Your love” and “Red light
zone”. Besides Kurt on keys, guitars, Tommy on guitars
and the string of BeNeLux singers, other musicians involved in the
FROZEN RAIN project are Jim Santos of NORWAY, Steve
Newman of NEWMAN, Daniel Flores of MIND’S
EYE and Ollie Oldenburg (ex-ZINATRA). Really recommended
to the AOR fans!
Rating: 8,4/10
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