Black Rain

Soon this band will come up with a new album, a lot more glam-styled then this one, but let us first review this one very briefly.

Black Rain is a French band, who sound like a mix of the Swiss Emerald and glam vocal-wise, and epic speed / heavy metal music-wise. They manage to make a pretty good debut album, but nothing that'll be reminded in some years. Unlike Jvo from Emerlad whose voice is one in a million and has a high "you love it or you hate it"-reputation, the voice of singer Swan isn't that special... at all. You can hear the resamblance with Jvo's voice in a lot of songs, but it's no more than that. The most Emerald-alike song is "No Life Till Metal", where you hope the rest of the album will also be more like this, but there's nothing more to get except disappointed expectations. There are three ballads on it, which is really too much, and above all they aren't that good either. In some songs the Italian speed power is recognizable (a bit like Domine), where in other songs it all sounds a bit more glam / old school heavy. No new concept, but even as an unoriginal album it's not very enjoyable. "Kill Em All" and (like I said) "No Life Till Metal" are my two favorite songs, because of the Emerald influence, but a more Manowar epic song like "Awake" doesn't impress me at all. Normally it would, though there's something that lacks - I can't put my finger on the right spot, but it just misses something... And sadly, that feeling beares throughout the whole album.

If you're an Emerald fan, you really should give 'em a chance, otherwise I'd just wait and see what their new (more glam sounding) album will bring us...