Emma Thompson during the making of the M.T.V. video for “Send Down An Angel”

Carried By The Storm Bronz
Your Tune Records

The future is bright, the future includes AOR! BRONZ return with their latest release CARRIED BY THE STORM.
This album is a slice of AOR heaven. The AOR genre tends to be dominated by bands from the US but Bronz have done the UK proud with this gem. Guitarist Shaun Kirkpatrick has rebuilt since the original line up split up back in 1984. This album was recorded years ago but the label went into receivership and it is amazing how new and fresh it sounds now that it has finally seen the light of day.

Opening track Can’t Live Without Your Love kicks off with a Bon Jovi/Europe-esque feel. I have to say I love songs with keyboard parts that are neatly integrated and really enhance the sound.

Man Girl Machine could have been lifted from a lot of 80s movie soundtrack with great guitars and big horns too. Taking things a little lighter Bronz dish up a lovely Foreigner vibe with Carried By The Storm.

If you have a penchant for AOR then this album is definitely worth checking out.

Standout tracks:
Carried By The Storm
Man Girl Machine (just for the 80s groove that it carries)
One More Time

Review by K.T.Glitz    Glitzine

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I tell ya, when I set eyes on the artwork of this album, my heart went two beats at a time for a couple of seconds! You see, I was around when this British band delivered their 1983 debut album Taken By Storm (and I am one of the proud owners of a vinyl copy of it). Released through Bronze Records (and licenced to Island Records for the US market), the album would sell in excess of 200,000 copies, and confirmed Bronz as one of the high contenders in the N.W.o.B.H.M. Which is funny, because the band’s music was rather a radio-friendly Hard Rock (then again, there were quite a few more bands counted as part of that scene, without playing Metal per say). In 1984, the band was one among the first in the NWoBHM scene to tour the USA. A tour which would lead to the demise of the then current line-up of the band (with guitarist Shaun Kirkpatrick as remaining founding member, the line-up had gone through a couple of changes since the foundation of the band in the mid seventies).

Kirkpatrick however persevered. With the full backing of his record company (whom supported him to the point of letting him record what was to be the first complete digitally recorded album – , and with the aid of producer Max Norman (producer for Ozzy Osbourne album Bark At The Moon), he redefined the band’s sound (in essence, what he did was fine-tune it even more to the American market, towards a melodic AOR) and recorded Bronz‘ sophomore album with the aid of a completely new line-up (found after several months of search, during which Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy was heavily involved in the pre-production stages of the album), including drummer Clive Edwards (previously of Wid Horses, Pat Travers and UFO), former Grand Prix‘ Mickey O’Donoghue (also has Gillan on his curriculum, apparently) on guitar & backing vocals, bassist Lee Reddings, lead singer Ian Baker. A host of guest musicians (including Manfred Mann’s Earth Band singer Chris Thompson as backing singer on the album’s opening song “Can’t Live Without Your Love”, a song which would also feature bassist Charlie McCracken of Taste, Family and Spencer Davies Group fame; Stevie Lange would sing backings to “You & Me” and “Man, Girl & Machine”; and Gary Barnacle would bring saxophone to the album’s title song and “Man, Girl & Machine”) added extra luster to the recordings (which, as a whole, took several months). However, with the album in the final stages of recording, Bronze Records went bankrupt, and the album was put on ice! So was the band, by the way, in spite of the fact that bookings for a new US tour to coincide with the release of the album, had already been made.

1998 saw the release of Unfinished Business, an album of unreleased tracks, and in 2000 the band briefly reformed for a couple of gigs to promote the album Bronz Live – Getting Higher (a compilation of old live songs augmented with a couple of new studio tracks). In 2005 the original line-up appeared at the Astoria in London alongside Diamond Head&Jaguar during an evening’s celebration of NWoBHM’s 25th anniversary. Last year, Shaun together with mastering engineer Gordon Young digitally “dusted off” the original recordings to make the most of this long forgotten AOR/ Classic Rock material! The recordings were first made available as digital download only, but since recently there’s also a “hard copy” to enjoy!
As mentioned above, the music on this “lost jem” is of a Melodic AOR with very heavy (mid-’80s) American leanings. Very nice stuff indeed, if you’re into that specific genre (and judging from my rating, you might guess – and very rightly so – that I personally certainly am). You can listen to samples from all songs at Amazon.co.uk (regrettably the band’s own website bronz-music.com and their page at MySpace do not carry any music). Oh well, actually there’s a possibility to hear a longer version of album opening track “Can’t Live Without Your Love” (the only song on the album nót produced by Norman, but by Pete Solley) and the album’s title track…when you take the trouble to listen to the interviews posted at (www.) yourtunerecords.com. Apparently the band’s playing shows around Europe on some of the festivals. Check ‘em out, if you can!

98/100

Two Sides Moon.

20/08/2010

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Rock Pages.gr

Bronz… you may remember this band from the ‘80s, or if you re-discovered them lately, with their “Taken By Storm” album, which was released in 1985 and did quite well. This is the band’s second album, which is released now, 25 years later!

The reasons that led to the delay are unfortunately pretty common in situations like that. The first album success created pressure, and tension in the band, some members quit, and when the band managed to regroup to release their second album their record company was on the verge of bankruptcy and was sold to Legacy Records, resulting the dropping of the album.

After all these years, sole survivor of Bronze, guitarist Shaun Kirkpatrick decided to unearth the old recordings, and with help from producer Gordon Young, they managed to re-build the second album. That was how a pretty good album which blends the American AOR, with traditional ‘80s British hard rock values, was saved from the sands of time!

The songs are pretty good, although they might sound a little retro, but after all it’s quite reasonable, since the material was recorded 25 years ago and it was meant to be released back then. But, that doesn’t really matter, since it’s never late to enjoy great music, and “Carried By The Storm” falls into this category. You should definitely check out: “Can’t Live Without Your Love”, “There’s a Reason”, “Tell Her”, “Figure In The Dark”.

Click here for more: http://bronz-music.com/

Yiannis Dolas

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OXFORDSHIRE MUSIC SCENE MAGAZINE 14/01/10