Spearheaded by the multi-talented Naser Mestarihi, Dubai rock 'n' rollers WINTERBURN finally released their debut album "Ivory Towers" in early December 2021. Main man, Mestarihi is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates who has been performing live since the age of 17. He is the first rock musician to ever officially release a rock album out of his birthplace Qatar. He began a solo career in 2007 with his first solo single "Salvation" in September 2009. A year later, he released his debut EP "Naser Mestarihi" to not much commercial success but some critical success with Rolling Stone Middle East, hailing it as "a huge sounding impressive debut." Buoyed by this praise, Mestarihi released his first full-length album "1987" internationally on June 17, 2013. The album's first single "Exodus Highway" received a positive review from Rolling Stone proper. He followed the release with his second full length album "Praed Street" featuring renowned Youtube drumming sensation Cobus Potgieter in March 2016.

WINTERBURN represents an enthralling new project for Naser Mestarihi who plays all the instruments on the album except for drums. The drumwork is being handled by Grammy-award winning drummer Thomas Pridgen who has played with both THE MARS VOLTA and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. He seeks to pulls from recent contemporary ambassadors of rock THE DARKNESS and AIRBOURNE while mixing in plenty of influence from the old guard of classic rock and metal IRON MAIDEN, OZZY OSBOURNE, and GUNS 'N' ROSES. The project was originally formed in 2018 with work beginning on the debut album "Ivory Towers" in 2019. Unfortunately, both illness and Covid halted early progress with Mestarihi saying, "I'm really proud of this record. I poured a lot of heart and soul into it, considering I fell ill with MS as we were getting into the sessions, which led to me having to relearn how to play the guitar. Getting this record done was battling through the odds for me." Now with the world opening up, Mestarihi managed to assemble a live band and with dates already played in 2021 and now in 2022, WINTERBURN claims to be ready to be your favorite new band.

WINTERBURN's debut is filled to the brim with dizzying nods to bands of the past but is filled with modern guitar-driven sensibilities. "Ivory Towers" is an irresistible delight to the ears. They came out swinging with their single for "Dogtown", a catchy and quick guitar riff drives the track, sounding like Slash on steroids before 2/3 of the way in we're treated to an 80s drenched guitar theatric exploration section that outlines the raw talent of his playing. In fact, much of the album is littered with so many tasty licks and leads, that it almost seems like a instrumental guitar album with some vocals sprinkled in. Mesterarihi does a perfectly fine interpretation of sleaze metal vocals complete with crazy doubling and harmonies akin to Axl Rose or Vince Neil but the guitar playing shines much brighter on this album. He does let loose on the instrumental track "Calijam" which is excellently executed, but seemed like directionless, endless noodling without a melody or hook to really latch onto. Having spent so much time making this album, it's clear that a lot was thrown into this and clearly a lot of passion and talent shines through. However, after my first listen, I was dizzy from all the ingredients in the pot and even after subsequent listens, I longed for a bit more trimming of the extended solo sections or to maybe break them out into their own fully formed songs.