Burning Rain

Burning Rain, the 1999 debut, combines thick guitar riffs, blues-rooted leads and soulful singing. The band had been formed the year before by guitarist Doug Aldrich and singer Keith St. John. The man who introduced them was bassist Ian Mayo, who played both in St. John's Hollywood band and in Aldrich's Bad Moon Rising. Mayo took the bass chair, and the Los Angeles session drummer Alexx Makarovich completed the four-piece. The songs are built in classic hard rock's grammar, but the cut of the playing and the stickiness of the rhythm sound fresh. Even where the guitar comes forward, the vocal melody and the groove hold the song up firmly. What is worth noting is that this record came out of a deal with Japan's Pony Canyon and appeared in Japan first — and that the band, at that point, had never once played live. Distribution was limited, but it drew high praise from critics and listeners alike. It was recorded at Psychosonic Sound in Sherman Oaks and other studios around Los Angeles. A convincing record that sounds the mainline with high-temperature playing.