This latest effort maintains Mad Max’s output over the last two decades, with a solid backline in place that now includes ex members of Frontline and Jaded Heart.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Mad Max
ALBUM: Stormchild Rising
LABEL: SPV/Steamhammer
SERIAL: SPV 241402 CD
YEAR: 2020
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
LINEUP: Michael Voss – vocals, guitars * Jurgen Breforth – guitars * Thomas ‘Hutch’ Bauer – bass * Axel Kruse – drums
Additional Musicians: Ronnie Romero – vocals (#1) * Oz Fox – guitar (#9) * Paul Shortino – vocals (#10) * Detlev Jocker and the Rock and Roll Children (#12)
TRACK LISTING: 01 Hurricaned * 02 Talk To The Moon * 03 Eyes Of Love * 04 Ladies And Gentlemen * 05 Mindhunter * 06 Rain Rain * 07 Gemini * 08 Kingdom Fall * 09 The Blues Ain’t No Stranger * 10 Take Her * 11 Busted * 12 Ladies and Gentlemen (Single Edit)
RATING: 80/100
WEBLINKS: FB Page
Background
Reviewing this Mad Max album prompted me to look to see what we had written about these German rockers previously on this website. I was shocked to see that there was only one album, from 2006: ‘Night Of White Rock’. There doesn’t appear to be any of their 80’s output, but we will soon rectify that as I am doing a trawl through German metal bands from the 80’s. And Mad Max is a good fit.
Voss is a busy bloke with numerous projects on the go including Wolfpakk and Phantom 5. This latest effort maintains Mad Max’s periodic output over the last two decades, with a solid backline in place that now includes ex members of Frontline and Jaded Heart in the rhythm section. The album title is a reference to their 1985 album ‘Stormchild’.
The Songs
The album starts with a hiss and a roar, the first two tracks ‘Hurricaned’ and ‘Talk To The Moon’ are excellent. ‘Eyes Of Love’ is also fairly decent but the midtempo ‘Ladies And Gentlemen’ didn’t hit the mark for me. ‘Mindhunter’ was OK but I couldn’t understand what the song was about. ‘Rain Rain’ lifts the tempo to the first two songs and sounds pretty decent too.
‘The Blues Ain’t No Stranger’ is the odd song out as Mad Max have never really written anything about the blues previously. Oz Fox from Stryper guests on this one providing a blazing solo. ‘Take Her’ is an excellent cover of the Rough Cutt track and Paul Shortino also duets with Voss on lead vocals. Wickedly good.
In Summary
The direction taken here by Mad Max is standard hard rock fare, nothing too far off the beaten track, unlike that aforementioned ‘Night Of White Rock’ album which definitely showed signs of Christian metal (refer to if via tag below). I’d say that 75 or 80% of this album was pretty good, the slim remainder less so. However, fans of German hard rock and metal should gravitate to this album with ease.
Video
Talk To The Moon
The Blues Ain’t No Stranger
[Dangerzone] These guys have never cut it for me, second rate German metal in my eyes.