Hailing from the Great White North, Storm Force is a new melodic hard rock act with familiar faces. Guitarist Greg Fraser is the longtime axeman for the veteran act, Brighton Rock. While the members of Storm Force may have been around the block a time or two, you wouldn’t know it from their debut, Age of Fear. It’s a lean, mean monster of an album that goes toe to toe with any of today’s new melodic hard rock and AOR bands.
Chock full of heavy riffs and tubular solos, Fraser is the star of the album. The title track is one of the finest thanks to a Scorpions influenced twin lead which compliments the meaty, yet melodic riffs. These riffs are the heart and soul of the entire album. They flourish on “Ride Like Hell” which reminds me of Accept and “Dirty Vegas” which so beautifully strides the line between sleaze and heaviness. What can I say? Fraser is a riff machine at our service. We’re not worthy!
While Fraser may be the beating metal heart behind Storm Force, he’s not alone in this endeavor. The blood keeping that heart pumping is the pounding rhythm section of Brian Hamilton (drums) and Mike Beradelli (bass) and the vocal heroics of Patrick Gagliardi. Sounding like a hybrid of Ronnie James Dio and Robin McAuley, I’m disappointed I wasn’t aware of Gagliardi prior to this album. I guess better late than never. All of these talents dominate on my favorite track, “Ringside”. It also happens to be the heaviest song on the album. If a new Rocky movie was made today, it would definitely make the soundtrack.
Storm Force isn’t about reinventing the wheel and that’s perfectly fine. What they are about is making big, catchy, melodic hard rock anthems and they do a damn fine job at it.
7 out of 10
Label: Escape Music
Genre: Hard Rock
For fans of: Scorpions, Dokken, McAuley Schenker Group