Customer Reviews

Storm

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Long before the Journey spin-off of "The Storm", way back in the late 70's, there was a band called "Storm" led by vocalist Jeanette Chase and guitarist extraordinaire Lear Stevens. They released two albums('79 and '83)...both called "Storm" (though the second is now marketed as "Storm II" despite the cover only showing "Storm").

In '91 three ex-Journey members joined with ex-707 and Steel Breeze vocalist Kevin Chalfant and hotshot guitarist Josh Ramos to form "The Storm". It's much more likely this is what you were looking for when you found this page. They had better distribution and a bigger push from the record company.

Amazon's page for the later band's debut is mixed up. The Editorial Review for the '91 album describes the '79 album. Even allmusic.com currently confuses them by showing a cover for the '79 album when you read the review of the '91 album.

Additionally, as Amazon sells both bands' albums, a review posted for the debut of either "Storm" ('79) or "The Storm" ('91) apparently appears on both pages...thus creating even more confusion.

If you like Journey-type music, you're likely to enjoy the '91 album (if you can locate a copy). You'll find solid performances, songwriting, and production. I'd missed Gregg Rolie's voice on the later Journey albums and enjoyed Mr. Chalfant's voice since I first heard him on 707's "Megaforce" album.

The '79 album (if you can justify the price) is more difficult to categorize. Imagine a female singer with guts, lots of overdubbed guitars and vocals, catchy songwriting, creative production, a powerful rhythm section, and four tons of talent and fun in a Rock/Pop (leaning more to rock than pop) setting there's a good chance you'll like the '79 and/or '83 albums.

Personally, I enjoy both bands and all four albums they released though I find myself listening more to the earlier band.

Storm was a great hard rocking band who released this gem in 1979. For anyone who likes the idea of Queen with a dynamic female singer mixed with a little bit of Sweet from their glory days, this is an essential purchase. I never heard the other band, The Storm, that was mentioned in the other review, but I wonder if the reviewer even bothered to listen to this cd. Guitarist Lear Stevens could have filled in for Brian May and Jeanette Chase's vocals are both powerful and melodic. I treasure my original album, and this cd has great bonus tracks that made it an essential purchase. The second album by Storm- also titled Storm was released on Capitol Records in 1983 with virtually no promotion, also very good, but not quite as strong as this release.

California-based rockers Storm (not to be confused with the later Journey spinoff band) released their self-titled debut in 1979. Storm was a pop/rock band that featured powerhouse female vocalist Jeanette Chase and her guitar hotshot husband Lear Stevens.

Storm's sound is hard to classify. Heart and Pat Benatar are obvious choices, because there weren't all that many female-fronted rock bands at the time. Storm sounds more British though, and clearly drew major influence from bands like Led Zeppelin and the Sweet, and maybe Queen. This is almost a glam rock album, but one with a lot of hard rocking punch. The vocals are very impressive, as is the guitar work. The whole album just has this huge sound, especially on the harder rocking songs like "Machine Gun" and "Shoot on Sight."

If you're a fan of female-fronted rock bands, glam rock, and/or late `70s and early `80s pop/rock, especially bands like the Sweet, Heart and Pat Benatar, you'll want to check out this lost gem, especially now that it has been reissued.

Edition Notes: Storm was reissued in 2006 by Rock Candy, which is (I believe) the first time the album has been released on CD. In addition to Rock Candy's usual superb quality digital remastering and extensive liner notes, Storm features five previously unreleased demo recordings as bonus tracks.

Oh, and how great is that album cover? They had the iPod imagined a quarter century ahead of time!

THIS IS NOT THE STORM WITH KEVIN CHALFANT. I made the mistake of buying this album, thinking it had Kevin Chalfant and the songs "In The Raw", "I've Got A Lot To Learn About Love" and "Show Me The Way". This is an entirely different band with a female lead singer. I've also written the seller of this CD and told them about the mistake in their advertisement. I didn't get ANY response and I'm stuck with a Storm CD I never wanted. BE SURE TO LOOK VERY CAREFULLY AT THE PICTURES. They list the songs on the album correctly.