Although this is not hard to the core Metal, the British BRONZ is just what the doctor ordered. Gosh, where the hell where those guys have been years ago? The story told throughout the past two and a half decades tells that "Carried By The Storm" was recorded in 1985 but was never released. Why? History tells us that the band's label back in the day was slowly liquidating its businesses. I am very sorry for BRONZ that this had to happen to them since the success of their debut album, "Taken By The Storm", however, two and half decades, come on mates, where were you when needed? Well, it doesn't matter, "Carried By The Storm" is out through Tune Records and its impact was felt.
For the sake of the band, I have to say that I am glad this album was released in the 00s. The main reason is that if that album was to be released in 1985, it would have entered a large swimming pool of AOR / Hard Rock bands and no special attention would have been given to it. So in terms of timing, BRONZ did well because as the 80s passed us by, so did AOR seem to pass on as well. In nowadays it is hard to find this kind of soft ,yet, high quality touch so even if I am talking here about a "should have been released" album, I would say that it is good that it is here.
"Carried By The Storm" stands out as a classic piece of music. I had a problem to accept that these guys were from the UK because in my account Britain may have brought NWOBHM, but the US scene brought AOR. The kind of music presented here is definitely AOR / Hard Rock, the American style plus extras like the Saxophone passages for example.
Throughout the course of the album I was taken back to my youth days when I watched 80s US films where the soundtracks were taken from AOR or Hard Rock bands. That is the same with BRONZ. Their utmost melodic nature made in the UK but feels US made their album strong to a certain point. As I said, this is not Metal, yet, a fan of AOR, or Hard Rock for that matter, would find his heavy niche easily. In the end, in the 80s BRONZ's stuff would have shaped like everything that was alive because AOR flourished, now, as this genre barely keeps up, the vintage fire will have a lot more fields to cover.
However, there are some even aspects on the album that are more concerned with the production. Guitarist Shaun Kirkpatrick and the engineer Gordon Young gave life to this old mid 80s recording in order to take this album into a full-time shape. Their efforts are appreciated, yet, there are several disturbances and inconsistencies like the high gain through some of the tracks. Moreover, it seems that there is a different sound patterns on some of the tracks as if those weren't to be inserted to the album originally.
BRONZ exploited a good timing to release an album that will linger through a time where its displayed music isn't appreciated as before.
Highlights: "Can't Live Without Your Love", "There's A Reason", "Man Girl Machine", "Tell Her", "Dangerous Game" and "Two Silhouettes".
