  
Frontiers/BAM
BURNING RAIN first arrived on the scene in 1998, as the blues tinged band of ex. HURRICANE and present WHITESNAKE guitarist Doug Aldrich and vocalist Keith St John. The pair soon added bass player Ian Mayo (HERRICANE ALICE, BANGALORE CHOIR) and drummer Alex Makarovic (ex. STEELHEART). The debut album arrived the following year. It has been out of print for a long time and is re-released here with two bonus tracks.
The band´s first outing was intensely influenced by decades gone by, mostly in Britain, but interestingly enough also revived successfully approximately ten years earlier by the likes of BADLANDS and KINGDOM COME. Opener “Smooth Locomotion” has a fine refrain with all the blues you could ask for, especially at the time. But the real high point is the bluesy and credible power ballad “Making My Heart Beat”, complete with an Eastern influenced solo. Speaking of guitar work, just give “Jungle Queen” a listen and tell me it´s not like an advert screaming “Hire me, this is what I can do with a singer sounding exactly like you!”. I guess the advert to Mr. Coverdale payed off in time… The chosen blues also adds a bit of uneasiness, as it by all means should, but when that part teams up with the bad boy part of clearly eighties influenced hard rock it gets a little too much at times. That fact leaves songs like “Cherry Grove” and the vaguely refrained “Fool No More” and “Heaven´s Garden” hanging in the balance. I also support my thesis with the excellence of speedier and more hard rocking tracks like “Can´t Cure the Fire” and “Tokyo Rising”, those two really lifts a heavy veil of the blues. But as a whole a think this album is slightly less even than the excellent follow-up “Pleasure to Burn”. Next up is the comeback album…can´t wait…
Track List
Smooth Locomotion
Superstar Train
Jungle Queen
Making My Heart Beat
Fool No More
Cherry Grove
Can´t Cure the Fire
Can´t Turn Your Back on Love
Heaven´s Garden
Tokyo Rising
Seasons of Autumn
Smooth Locomotion (Accoustic)
Can´t Turn Your Back on Love (Accoustic)
www.frontiers.it www.myspace.com/burningrainofficialnet
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