By Monk
In many ways, it could be argued that this, the 14th album from German hard rock troubadours Mad Max, is something of a “sequel”, seeing at it resurrects a character first created by the band on their third album, ‘Stormchild’, away back in 1985 (one of the best albums of its ilk and era, and an original vinyl copy of which I still have buried away in the darkest recesses of my mancave!). According to guitarist Jürgen Breforth, fans have been clamouring for the return of the character – “our warrior who battles for everything good in the world, not with weapons but with rock songs” – and this album is their reward…
While very much an updating of a 35-year old concept, ‘Stormchild Rising’ is very much a loving look over the band’s shoulders, as it is also a prime exemplar of that all-too pertinent rock ‘n’ roll adage of “don’t fuck with the formula”, as it treads a path with which fans who have followed the band over the course of their almost 40-year long career will be all-too-familiar. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few surprises along the way, as there are, in the form of not just one or two collaborative efforts but a total of four, starting with a guest appearance by Ronnie Romero, frontman of the current incarnation of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, who joins MM main man Micheal Voss on the lead-off track, and first single, ‘Hurricaned’. Romero’s contribution is appropriate, as the band themselves bill the song as an homage to Rainbow and the classic sound of their Dio-fronted era (and it’s not the first reference to RJD, as we’ll touch upon slightly later), and is a faithful evocation, as well as rambunctious and declarative a start as you could ask for.
Current single ‘Talk To The Moon’ shows that, despite approaching the end of their fourth decade as a creative entity, Messrs Breforth, Kruse and Voss – now ably abetted by bassist Thomas Bauer – have lost none of their creative forcefulness when it comes to crafting impressive melodic hard rock songs, combining the essential ingredients of huge harmonies, hummable hooks, earworm melodies and steak-searing solos. They ease off the pedal slightly with the impressive power ballad ‘Eyes Of Love’ and then even more so with the twee ‘Ladies And Gentlemen’, the first of two versions included herein and by far the weakest and most cringeworthy offering on this otherwise highly impressive opus.
Thankfully, normal service is resumed with the punchy ‘Mindhunter’, which may be cheesier than a truckload of cheddar but still thumps and snarls with a classic hard rock groove, while ‘Rain Rain’ is a fairly standard melodic rock track that rattles along at a decent mid-album pace, enough so to ensure you retain interest for the second half. This kicks off in similar style to the first, with the left-right-left delivery of ‘Gemini’, a good, solid hard rocker which serves as a mere appetizer for one of the album’s standout moments – the epic ‘Kingdom Fall’, which struts and swaggers with the assured confidence you would expect of such seasoned musicians, while getting your feet tapping along to its infectious beat.
‘The Blues Ain’t No Stranger’ is the second of the album’s four collaborations, featuring a neat solo contribution from Oz Fox (why does he always play better on other people’s songs than on those by his own band?) before the band pay another tribute to their heritage with a very worthy cover of Rough Cutt’s ‘Take Her’, which sees Paul Shortino return to lead vocal duty and help provide a very neat update of the tune. ‘Busted’ closes out the “album proper” with another slice of rowdy, dancefloor-filling melodic metal, which once again manages to strike an effective balance between both of those elements… If only they had left it at that, because this edition of the album signs off with the second version of the aforementioned ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’, recorded with the German singer Detlev Jöcker, best known as a children’s TV host, as demonstrated by the fact that this rendition also features a choir by the name of “The Rock And Roll Children” (giving us our third Dio reference of the album!) – and the fact that it’s heavier than the one tracklisted earlier shows the misnomer of including the “alternative” version that dissipated the impact of the first half of the album:
Despite the faults highlighted above, ‘Stormchild Rising’ is a strong album, one which is made better by the vagaries of modern technology allowing us to skip past the minor foibles and leave the overall listening experience with a satisfied smile and the knowledge that we are in the company of yet another veteran outfit who can still deliver the goods…
- ‘Stormchild Rising’ is released today (Friday 21 August). You can get your copy HERE.
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