Belgian band Frozen Rain have been off the public radar since 2012 and return with a new third album in 2023.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Frozen Rain
ALBUM: One Mile From Heartsville
LABEL: Lions Pride Music
SERIAL: LPM098
YEAR: 2023
CD INFO: Discogs Info List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Belgium
LINEUP: Lars Edvall – lead and backing vocals * Jens Ambrosch – lead and rhythm guitars * Jurgen Vitrier – keyboards, bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals * Kurt Vereecke – keyboards, bass, guitar, backing vocals * Hans Vereecke – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 One Mile From Heartsville * 02 Move On * 03 Fire * 04 She’s The One * 05 How Could I Know * 06 Let Me Love You * 07 One Of These Mornings * 08 More Than A Friend * 09 What’s It Gonna Be * 10 Ready For Tonight * 11 That’s Why I’m Loving You * 12 The Waiting’s Over
RATING: 90/100
Frozen Rain Background
Belgian band Frozen Rain have been off the public radar since 2012 and return with a new third album in 2023.
If we wind the clock back fifteen years ago, the Frozen Rain debut was a glorious bonafide AOR album. The lineup featured a stellar cast of participants. The second album from 2012 sounded like a completely different lineup recorded it, consequently it rated lower than the debut.
I’m unsure what Kurt Vereecke and the team have been up to, but they are still active on social media. Frozen Rain are now signed to Lions Pride Music out of Denmark. Previously they were on Gregor Klee’s label Avenue Of Allies.
Lets take a listen.
The Songs
Frozen Rain for the first time officially features Swede Lars Edvall (Fansfield) and Jens Ambrosch on vocals and guitars respectively. Their contributions ensure the band maintains the template they started out with back in the noughties.
‘One Mile From Heartsville’ announces Frozen Rain’s attention to detail from an AOR perspective. A quite glorious introduction. Check out that huge and phat sounding synth bombardment on ‘Move On’. Wow, haven’t heard anything that dense as far as synths are concerned for years.
‘Fire’ despite the name won’t burn your socks off. Instead it’s fairly mild by Frozen Rain’s lofty standards. Though that chorus is fairly hot and spicy. ‘She’s The One’ is played at a slower tempo but the intensity is ramped up. To my ears, it veers close to progressive rock territory. No doubt due to the wandering arrangement and numerous time changes.
‘How Could I Know’ returns the band to the melodic rock podium. With a straight up rhythm section, racy guitars and synths on overload, how could you go wrong? ‘Let Me Love You’ takes about a minute to warm up due to the long guitar intro. When it does kick into high gear, it really does sound impressive. The synth bursts are definitely an air keyboardists wet dream.
‘One Of These Mornings’ shifts to more laid back territory. It sounds similar to Swedes State Of Salazar, a band we hope will return to action soon. ‘More Than A Friend’ is the albums ballad moment. It’s very lilting with string and violin for accompaniment, and not much else apart from a racy synth solo.
‘What’s It Gonna Be’ is a track whose chorus is much stronger than it’s verses. The guitar solo also lifts it above the pass mark level. ‘Ready For Tonight’ is a track which could be straight out of the playbook of newer bands. In that I’m thinking of outfits such as Stardust or Grand. Good company indeed.
‘That’s Why I’m Loving You’ keeps the metronome ticking over. A certain lady by the name of Sarah is being namechecked throughout this song. The guitar work from Jens Ambrosch is off the scale. Wow, very good player. ‘The Waiting’s Over’ is an apt song title for the closing track. By now I’ve had sugary overdose of melodic rock. How do I recover?
In Summary
Frozen Rain have returned to the scene with one bombastic album. I don’t know how else to describe it. Maybe one or two tracks sit just below the waterline, but the rest are high and dry.. and mighty.
The one thing I will say is that I can’t pick an absolute stand out. They are all pretty decent, I will need to spend more time with it. In the meantime, check it out. Refer the YTM link underneath.
Frozen Rain on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
