Burning Rain's fourth album arrived 20 years after the band's debut, which sounds like a leisurely pace until the musicians involved are considered. Doug Aldrich's career has passed through Dio, Whitesnake, Glenn Hughes, Revolution Saints and the Dead Daisies, while singer Keith St. John has worked across the same broad hard-rock world. Face the Music sounds exactly as seasoned as that history suggests.
The remarkable part is how little the expertise turns into exhibition. Aldrich could fill 50 minutes with guitar technique alone, but the record is built around songs rather than demonstrations. The riffs arrive with enough force to satisfy anyone interested in the mechanics of hard rock, while the solos remain concise enough to preserve the momentum around them.
St. John's voice gives the material a suitably rough surface. The melodies are strong, frequently anthemic and occasionally close to the more polished end of eighties hard rock, yet his delivery keeps them from becoming generic. Brad Lang and Blas Elias provide a rhythm section that understands the difference between heaviness and clutter.
The band's influences are easy to hear without dominating the record. "Midnight Train" rides an Aerosmith-style groove; "If It's Love" carries some of the swagger associated with Whitesnake; "Beautiful Road" has the melodic aggression of early-nineties American hard rock. The references make sense because these musicians participated in the same musical ecosystem rather than approaching it as revivalists.
One of the album's strengths is its refusal to stop for the obligatory power ballad. "Shelter" introduces acoustic guitar and broader dynamics, but even its quieter passages are used to build toward heavier material. The general motion remains forward.
Alessandro Del Vecchio's production gives the record plenty of modern weight while retaining the physical character of a band. The guitar is large, the vocals are clear and the rhythm section has enough room to move. There is polish, but very little that interferes with the music's basic purpose.
Face the Music does not attempt to modernize hard rock by dismantling it. Burning Rain know the form too well to need that exercise. Eleven strong songs, sharp riffs and musicians capable of making familiarity feel purposeful are enough.
GENRE: Hard Rock
RELEASE DATE: March 22, 2019
PRODUCED BY: Alessandro Del Vecchio
LABEL: Frontiers Music Srl
RATING: 7/10