Album Review: Sunstorm - Afterlife

"This is another fine mess you've gotten me into," Oliver Hardy said to Stan Laurel. Actually, he never did say those exact words. Variations on the phrase, but never that exact parlance. It joins the list of things we know that aren't true, like "Beam me up, Scottie", and "Luke, I am your father". That's not important, though. What is important is that Sunstorm arrives with this album, and it's a complete mess. Not the music, but the behind the scenes drama that now renders this record something harder to deal with.

Sunstorm is a Joe Lynn Turner project, and has been defined by him and him alone for twenty years. The cast changes, as does the music, but Turner is the entire point of the project existing. Except now, after a disagreement over what direction Sunstorm should be going, Ronnie Romero is now the singer. Ronnie is already in fifty other projects, and has griped about his own dissatisfaction about the business, and now he takes over a project that is using a name it doesn't need to. This would be exactly the same if they put it out under any other name, and I wouldn't have to talk about the machinations between artists and labels.

The talk was of this album going in a more melodic and AOR direction, as compared to the previous couple albums. Honestly, I don't really hear that. These songs sound like the same moderately heavy melodic rock Sunstorm has been giving us all along. Maybe it's a hair lighter this time around, but the hallmarks of what I consider AOR aren't readily apparent. It's yet more solid, Frontiers styled melodic rock.

If you like that, and you like Ronnie Romero, you can't go wrong with Sunstorm. There's a certain level of quality you always get from these sorts of albums, and Sunstorm more than lives up to it. Yes, we've heard every note of this before, but fans eat it up because it delivers what we want. The songs are heavy enough, smooth enough, and centered on big melodies. That formula is what a lot of the best music is.

The other side of that equation is that since all these albums feature the same cast of writers and players, the only difference from one to the next is the voice. Ronnie has never been a favorite of mine, and I continue to question what I don't hear that everyone else does. He's fine, but I don't think the grit he tries to sing with matches the tone of the music particularly well. Then there's "One Step Closer", where the effects on his voice make him sound alien. I don't know if it was a choice, or if it was necessary, but it sounds awful. I'm prone to liking organic recordings, but even so, covering up his voice like that is a bad look, one way or the other.

So what we have here is another solid melodic rock album. It does most of the right things, and it delivers an enjoyable time. It doesn't stand out from the pack, and I'm afraid that because it doesn't, the drama is going to be the most lasting thing about it. If you can put that aside, "Afterlife" is a fine record to spend some time with.