Sunstorm
Emotional Fire

I think a guy like Joe Lynn Turner deserves no introduction, his legacy speaks for itself having been part of the great Rainbow and also Yngwie Malmsteen’s Odyssey, having done guest appearances for lots of artists and bands during his long career. Of course he has been releasing music under his own name as well, and also together with well-known producer Dennis Ward under the moniker of Sunstorm. This is actually the third album by the Sunstorm moniker. On the two prior the focus was on songs earlier written by Turner for other bands in the 80s and such and for this latest the focus is on songs on which he has made an appearance, as on the title track which was written by Michael Bolton for Cher in 1989 where Turner appeared singing background. But sure, not all is cover songs there are some songs written by the usual suspects of Frontiers artists like the guys from Vega and Daniel Palmqvist from Xorigin as well as Sören Kronkvist known amongst other for work with Issa. As you can see there is a lot of background stuff one can talk about, the cover art for example is a lovely piece made by the great italian artist Nello Dell’Omo who has done lots of covers for Frontiers bands. But impatiently you are now asking me to move along, please write something about the music.

Sure enough, I will.

For all of you who has heard Joe Lynn Turner before I do not think anything will take you by a massive amount of surprise, his voice is as good as it has ever been and the melodic hardrock music that he tends to sing on is also there very much recognisable. I heard immediately that it was a Joe Lynn Turner project already from the first song on this album, he has a way and a style that is easy to spot. The songs are melodic and catchy fast paced and hard rocking with lots of energy and focus, the production bears the trademarked style of a Dennis Ward production: very focused on the melodies and the vocals while still remaining a bit raw and edgy. There are eleven of those songs on this album and they play for little over 42 minutes, and they do so while maintaining a similar style throughout the entire album, making it a not overly varied album I would say.

I think that this album is quite brilliant, the songs are energetic great and melodic and Turner sings as good as he has ever done. The energy is maintained throughout the entire album and there are no visible weaknesses and the album is even good seen to the playing time, had I played this album for something like many other reviewers do which means once or maximum a pair of times then a five would have been given. But the thing is, this album is slightly falling apart when being played a little more and there is one reason for this and that is spelled v-a-r-i-a-t-i-o-n. There is no variation on this album, all songs are shaped more or less the same and when playing this album more than four times it starts to feel very repetitive. I mean very repetitive to a degree where you start loosing track of songs and it all just melts into one big pile of sameness and you tire of it very quickly from there on. Not so that you hate the album but just so that you don’t ever really feel like playing it.

I like the opening track Never Give Up which is really good as an opener and as all tracks on this album an energetic catchy piece, then the second track which is the title track is also very good along with the Bolton song called Gina which is the seventh track. I think that if these tracks would have been on say the upcoming Rage album, then they would have been great but on this album they tend to be a bit lessened by the similitude.

So, what am I as an expert saying then? I say that this is a brilliant album as long as you don’t overplay it, because if you do then you probably won’t ever want to play it again. So as long as you play it once a fortnight or so.