Sunstorm – Brothers In Arms

It happens to all of us (I hope): some great bands slip under our radar until something happens to draw our attention to them; most typically – a new musician joining them. This is how I discovered Sunstorm, a band that sounded fairly different until Ronnie Romero got together with them last year for their previous album Afterlife. The comparison is very noticeable; this sounds like a new band – which, of course, doesn’t take away the self shame you might feel about not having listened to them before.

If you like your classic rock, you will enjoy this. Sunstorm’s upcoming new release Brothers In Arms is a very well rounded, balanced album, not too fast, not too slow, not too hard, not too soft, and delivered at an undeniable professional level.

The music is written under a notable 80s influence, and keyboards play an important part here with that recognisable signature sound for the classical decade. Credit for this goes to Alessandro Del Vecchio whose career, too, has rocketed in the past decade, with collaborations (to name a few) such as Jorn, Tyketto, Star One, TNT, Graham Bonnet Band, Tyketto, Edge Of Forever, etc. The old fashioned style keyboards grabs you right from the very first song and underlines the entire album, good examples being tracks like ‘Lost In The Shadows Of Love’, ‘Hold The Night’ (very Deep Purple!) and ‘Miracle’.

Throughout the album, rhythm is steady, with ‘Lost In The Shadows Of Love’ being the only faster track, yet not too speedy.

There is an abundance of some great catchy tunes (‘Games We Play’, ‘I Will Remember’, ‘No Turning Back’), and particularly enjoyable is ‘Taste Of Heaven’ – a heartfelt track with an excellent background chorus. It sounds more like the art rock that Ronnie delivers with the Bulgarian band Intelligent Music Project, deviating briefly from the overall classic rock sound generally infusing the entire album.

A couple of tracks provoke some interesting references. The start of ‘Games We Play’ strangely reminds me of the intro to ‘1,000 Rainy Nights’ by Stratovarius, while ‘I’ll Keep Holding On’ takes me back to Rainbow’s ‘Street Of Dreams’.

As cheesy as this may be, personal favourite will have to be the power ballad ‘Back My Dreams’: a beautiful song with some masterful guitar solos.

Overall, a very nice piece that is worth having in your downloads library.

• Reviewed by Angelina Pelova.
• Brothers In Arms is released via Frontiers Music on 12th August 2022.
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Track list:

1. Brothers In Arms

2. Games We Play

3. I’ll Keep Holding On

4. I Will Remember

5. No Turning Back

6. Back My Dreams

7. Taste Of Heaven

8. Lost In The Shadows Of Love

9. Hold The Night

10. Miracle

11. Living Out Of Fear