A new Burning Rain album is always a big thing in these parts and I’ll make a big call here by saying that ‘Face the Music’ may even be the best yet.
Since forming in 1998 the partnership of Dog Aldrich and Keith St. John has always delivered the goods and their bluesy take on the hard rock template we know and love has always had us wanting more, sadly in the case of live shows they have always been few and far between, but the good news is that this year Keith and Doug are taking it on the road. If you want to know more about that then check out our interview with Keith later this week.
Burning Rain is one of the bands I’ve loved over the years and oddly enough one I’ve always been tipped off about new releases – Doug let me know in advance that ‘Epic Obsession’ was coming out back in 2013 when we chatted about The Dead Daisies and Sean McNabb who played bass on that album let me know that this one was coming last year when he played Australia with Steven Adler. Scheduling of course is always an issue when the musicians involved are juggling multiple projects so it’s great that both Keith and Doug’s schedules have finally aligned. This album also sees a new rhythm section comprising veterans Blas Elias (Slaughter) on drums and Brad Lang (Y&T) on bass.
If you want an opener to fling open the doors of possibility then ‘Revolution’ has a great big fat groove and acts as a the best possible reintroduction to Burning Rain and the new album. It’s a song that reminds you both what all the fuss was about 20 years ago when they released their searing debut, and also how far both Keith and Doug have come as players over that time. There’s a maturity at play on this album that adds depth and rather than constrain it brings with it possibility.
‘Lorelei’ that follows has to be one of my favourites here after a good few listens. It has the feel of Aerosmith’s ‘Kings and Queens’ about it, and indeed at points the album has some wonderful rich shades of that band and that vintage. As an Aerosmith fan for me praise doesn’t come any higher so the fact that ‘Nasty Hustle’ keeps that thought and retains that wonderful late seventies Aerosmith feel (and also sports a searing solo) means the grinning still hasn’t stopped.
The first single lifted from the album ‘Midnight Train’ digs deeper and dirtier – there’s a wonderfully dirty bluesy thrust to this one and a scorching guitar that works well up against ‘Shelter’ which takes it down a notch, to deliver a gritty acoustic-led dirty ballad that has an ancient groove and hypnotic swing and a gentle soothing refrain.
And the album keeps on giving: ‘Face The Music’ is a mid tempo bluesy rocker that more than satisfies; ‘Beautiful Road’ is even better with a huge funky groove, swing and stutter that has more than a lick of Whitesnake about it; whilst ‘Hit And Run’ hits a homer – a riff rocker again, with that dirty ‘Draw the Line-era Aerosmith’ groove and a huge chorus.
And just when you think they can’t possibly keep up that quality the album ends with three songs that I’d place amongst the best here. ‘If It’s Love’ is another slower number, a languid crawl through a hot summer night, with Keith channeling Coverdale deep in the endless night. It’s such a great song you feel it could have been the lead single on any recent Whitesnake album.’Hideaway’ on the other hand sets out to be guitar all the way before it falls into a funky almost early eighties Stonesy groove, like a rockier cut from ‘Tattoo You’ replete with a ‘Miss You’ style Jagger-style rap that just works like magic,and amazingly as Keith told me was pretty much made up on the spot!
That leaves just the closer ‘Since I’m Loving You’ to leave us dangling – an over the top groove-laden classic rock tour de force with real Zeppelinesque bite, and a song that allows Keith to show that he is one of hard rock’s great under-appreciated gems.
So with Doug now gracing The Dead Daisies and Keith with the revamped Kingdom Come you might think that again Burning Rain fans are going to be foiled by the demands of other projects – not so – the great news is that this year Burning Road will be hitting the road. This you gotta see. Album of the year? I’m not ruling it out!
