BLACKRAIN
“Untamed”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

BlackRain are a metal/rock band from France formed in 2001 releasing seven albums during their twenty year career to date – ‘Untamed’ the bands seventh, was released in 2022…

…featuring an incredible twelve songs across fifty four heavy hitting minutes. The band have toured with the likes of Alice Cooper, Scorpions, and Kissin’ Dynamite, and already have plans for a summer 2023 tour of Europe. So expect plenty of punch and crunch from a band that have most likely produced the best work of their career…so far! Opening song (and title song) ‘Untamed’ is an immediate and in your face heavy hitter with enough force to floor every heavyweight boxing champion with just the one punch! ‘Untamed’ (the song) has the same panache as Aussie hard rockers Airbourne’s ‘Runnin’ Wild’ (off their debut album of the same name) – along with matching intensity, urgency, and purpose. An instant head turner, BlackRain have set the bar very high for the rest of the album to follow…

…and follow it they do with ‘Kiss The Sky’, right up there with ‘Untamed’ (the song), punching hard and kicking harder. The pace and power of ‘Kiss The Sky’ borders on power metal, yet has the punch of hard rock and the iconic gallop of traditional heavy metal. The band varying their sound dramatically, catering for a very wide array of listeners – who are gonna instantly become fans. For BlackRain’s music is that infectious! Thundering pop come power come hard driving rock hits like a heavy hammer blow, as ‘Dawn Of Hell’ bursts through the speakers and soars gracefully like an eagle. The band delivering an energetic blend of metal and rock to get the party started – a party that’s gonna last a lifetime! For music is eternal, and ‘Untamed’ (the album) is gonna remain in fans playlists for a very long time to come. With the infectious level at an all time high, the album roars on with the smile inducing ‘All The Darkness’ – and a melodic rock influence that plants a different dynamic on the album to what has gone before. There’s just something so attractive about ‘Untamed’ (the album) that I just can’t explain!

What that attraction is I don’t know, but it’s getting stronger and stronger as the band plough on with the heavy rocking ‘Demon’, and a melodious intent higher than heard anywhere else so far! And that chorus too – sing a long-able to the max. What an in concert sing a long that’s gonna be! And to be a part of it is gonna be something truly memorable. The feel good party atmosphere along with the anthemic aura is simply stunning – the band heavying things up a little bit with the heavier hitting ‘Summer Jesus’. And a feeling of the blunter nature of British hard rock…the Frenchmen reaching across the channel for inspiration. I really can’t emphasise enough the attractiveness of this album – it’s simply breath taking! Moving toward a Middle Eastern feel – for the first ten seconds or so anyway – the band launch into a fiery tirade of punchy hard rock courtesy of ‘Set The World On Fire’. A thundering, mildly aggressive barnstormer, BlackRain are gonna set the world alight with this one…and I for one am not gonna call the sapeurs-pompiers!

The energy and oomph of the album to this point has been sky high – and now rockets to the moon with ‘Neon Drift’, the most energetic and pizzazz fuelled song heard so far. BlackRain maintaining an incredible intensity that is all consuming and very welcome – I defy anyone to not have been enthralled by the band to this point! Is ‘Untamed’ (the album) a very late charge for the 2022 Album Of The Year award? Maybe, just maybe! And with as much power and passion as everything heard so far, ‘Blade Of Love’ storms on with a head bang ability not felt before. Rock and metal fans are gonna be attracted to this one – and the album as a whole – ’cause BlackRain are standing tall and proud on the connecting bridge between the hard rock and heavy metal genres. Such an imposing place be, with every listener, fan and follower raising a glass to salute a cracking performance. ‘Raise Your Glass’ is a heavy thunder fire and brimstone stroll of hard rocking heavy metal – with the infectious level reaching new and uncharted heights! Surely the band are running out of breath by now!

Nope – they’re not! ‘Shut Down’ the next barnstorming barrage of rock come metal. The thundering nature of ‘Shut Down’ is devastating, cracking the ground as it motors on by at a pace akin to the iconic gallop of traditional heavy metal – the Frenchmen continuing their run around of both the rock and metal genres. And as the album comes to a close, this has been one helluva entertaining and enthralling journey of music – the final hurrah a more mellow offering than any other song on offer…’The End’ floating in like a ballad, becoming heavier until it breaks out into a majestic hymn-like march of anthemic proportions. A fitting end to a superb album of hard rocking heavy metal.

Overall, a staggering journey of breathless rock and metal, full of energy and an attraction level that is just perfect.

TRACKLIST

Untamed
Kiss The Sky
Dawn Of Hell
All The Darkness
Demon
Summer Jesus
Set The World On Fire
Neon Drift
Blade Of Love
Raise Your Glass
Shut Down
The End

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