FollowSo it’s been four years since Frozen Rain’s self titled debut album hit the shelves, 
and on the 9th of March they released their follow up album Ahead Of Time via Avenue Of Allies. So four years on, how has the line up changed, and how do they sound?
Well for one thing the debut album was recorded without a steady line up and instead used a wide range of musicians, including the likes of Steve Newman and Tommy Denander. However this time Kurt Vereecke, the Belgian song writer and multi-instrumentalist behind the project, decided to record this album with a fixed line up. In addition to Kurt’s fellow Belgian’s Vincent De Laat on bass and Jurgen Vitrier on keys, both of whom were part of the band for the debut album, Kurt’s brother Hans joins the band on drums. The other spots in the band are filled by Rik Priem on guitars and the distinctive German singer Carsten “Lizard” Schulz on vocals. Many will recognize him as the singer for Evidence one and Domain. The album was mixed by Alessandro Del Vecchio (Lionville, Edge Of Forever, Eden’s Curse, Shining Lake) and mastered by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Sunstorm, Unisonic).
The addition of Priem to the band goes beyond playing, as he has also contributed to the writing of many of the songs on this album, therefore having an impact on both their sound and creativity, which shows in that this modern sounding AOR album has a more guitar oriented feel to it than its predecessor.
But don’t assume by that that the keys and synth is missing from this album at all. It’s not, this album is full of it, featuring some frenetic keyboard playing and guitaring at times remiscent of the styles of Neal Schon (Journey) and Helge Engelke (Dreamtide/Fair Warning). Frozen Rain strike a fantastic balance between guitar and keyboards, with Schulz providing soaring vocals to make an album AOR lover’s everywhere will be drooling over.
My personal highlights from this album include: the album’s bombastic opening song “Believe It Or Not”, a melodic rock treat – incidentally a video was shot for this song. “Forever” and “Breaking Out” are definite highlights and feature some great guitar work from Priem. I also have to highlight “We’re Gonna Rock”, a great feel good factor song which at its beginning and again later reminded me of Dreamtide. The power ballad “Too Late” is full of emotion and was by Kurt Vereeke’s daughter Joke – hopefully we’ll be hearing more of her writing career in time. I also get the feeling that the rocker “Turn It On” is going to become a live favourite among the fans. The final song on the album, “Voodoo Party”, is an instrumental track of high quality which ensures that if by this point you hadn’t noticed how good the musicians in this band are, you will before the end.
Verdict: 9/10. The hard work that Vereecke and Priem have put into the writing and production of this album have paid off, resulting in an album with soaring vocals, great riffing, and bombastic keys. I’d say fans of TNT (particularly the Tony Harnell era), Da Vinci, Treat, Journey and Dreamtide would enjoy this album.
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