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Frontiers Records [Release date 20.5.13]
It may be his role as David Coverdale’s guitar slinger in Whitesnake that has brought him to wider attention, but Doug Aldrich has not forgotten his old band mates, as one of his former acts Burning Rain have reassembled for their first album in 12 years.
However the album starts in disappointing fashion to me. Singer Keith St John’s voice seems huskier and more tired than before – though Aldrich will be no stranger to other singers of whom that can be said. The opening trio ‘Sweet Little Baby Thing’, ‘The Cure’ and ‘Till You Die’ are average pieces of sleazy hard rock with barely a melodic hook in them.
Fortunately things pick up with the acoustically driven ‘Till Heaven Gets You By’ which has the feel of the Blind Faith classic ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’, ‘Pray Out Loud’ which has some great Aldrich swaggering riffery and the more sedate too ‘Hard To Break’ also hits the mark.
Even before he came to David Coverdale’s attention there was a very strong Zeppelin influence to Burning Rain’s work and this again shows on ‘Our Time is Gonna Come’, and, while with St John yelping ‘Baby Baby Baby’, ‘Out In The Cold Again’ could be a missing track off Coverdale Page.
‘My Lust Your Fate’ and the Skid Row-esque ‘Ride the Monkey’ are rather forgettable, but the semi ballad ‘When Can I Believe in Love’ ends the main part of the album in an epic fashion. Talking of which, they even attempt the unthinkable by covering Kashmir, but the result is staggeringly close to the original.
If you like the last two Whitesnake albums, this is in the same mould, but despite improving as it goes along the rather lived in feel of the vocals make it inferior to their previous two albums for me. *** ½
Review by Andy Nathan
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