HALESTORM was formed in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, USA, in 1998 by siblings Elizabeth 'Lzzy' Hale and her younger brother Arejay Hale. The brother-sister duo have been writing songs and performing since they were 10 and 13 year olds. While Lzzy started off on the piano and moved on to guitar by the age of 16, her brother started to play the drums. In the year 1999, the teenaged siblings released an EP entitled "Don't Mess with the Time Man". Joe Hottinger and Josh Smith joined the band in the year 2003 and 2004 respectively. Roger Hale, the father of the siblings played bass for the band in the early years of their formation. The band has released three full length original studio albums called "Halestorm" in 2009, "The Strange Case of.." in 2012 and "Into The Wild Life" in the year 2015. They have also released a live album called "Live in Philly" in the year 2010. The band have played with a bands ranging from ALTER BRIDGE to DISTURBED to HELLYEAH to BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. The band is well known for its grueling touring schedule and they perform up to around 250 gigs a year all around the world.

"ReAnimate 3.0" is the bands third albums featuring cover songs of bands that HALESTORM considers to be influenced by. The first cover album entitled "Reanimate: The Covers" had cover version of songs from bands like SKID ROW, GUNS 'N' ROSES, BEATLES and LADY GAGA. The second cover album cleverly entitled "ReAnimate 2.0" had cover songs of bands like JUDAS PRIEST, DAFT PUNK, AC/DC and FLEETWOOD MAC.

 The first song of "ReAnimate 3.0" is the Coverdale love sage "Still of the night" and is a tad shorter and trimmed to just over 4 minutes long. The blues based Hair Metal song is played more or less faithfully to the original including the cello parts in between as well as Coverdale's tortured screams." Damn I Wish I was Your Lover" is the second choice of song of the album and it is a song that has veered considerably from the original. The original song was a fluffy pop number with a very 90's pop sound. This version however, retains the longing in the vocals while replacing the keyboards with guitar work. What was a meek pop song has been turned into a grungy song about craving." I Hate Myself For Loving You" , the Joan Jett classic has been given the Lzzy treatment and for once one feels that the song is butchered in the beginning. As the track progresses, the vocals are just about competent. It felt like she was trying to copy Jett's style of singing and I felt that it missed the spot. However, Lzzy will no doubt identify with Joan Jett being the singer and the guitar player in the band. The last song of the album is " Ride The Lightning" by Thrash Metal pioneers METALLICA. The song is no doubt a bit on the technical side and has a slightly faster tempo. However, Lzzy's singing on this track is a revelation. The angst ridden verse parts are tortured and add a new spin on the classic Thrash Metal track. The band tries to remain true to the original and any parts that they have simplified is overlooked by the brilliant, soaring angry lead vocals.

Recording and releasing a cover album is always a risky and problematic proposition as the margin for error is ever so slight. The songs will be dissected and inspected by various fans of different genres and it is imperative to get it absolutely spot-on. Anybody who is familiar at all with HALESTORM know them to be a bunch of competent musicians and they can navigate any track from any genre with flair and add their own twist to the songs. The Grammy winning band's latest effort is on the Billboard charts at No.1 and No.2 in the Hard Rock and Rock albums charts respectively.<