The Storm

Album Review

The latest big-voiced diva to emerge from Frontiers Records, the label which appears to be single-handedly keeping the female-fronted power metal genre alive, Norwegian singer/songwriter Issa Oversveen's second album, Storm, pushes her further toward the AOR territory occupied by the likes of Robin Beck and Fiona. Indeed, the single-monikered powerhouse may have been a backing vocalist for such stalwarts as the Quireboys and Nazareth, but the follow-up to 2010's Sign of Angels shows little evidence of her heavy rock past. "Invincible" and "Too Late for Love" are the kind of lighters-in-the-air power ballads Heart became renowned for in the late '80s; the closing title track starts off sounding like an outtake from Gloria Estefan's Let It Loose before bursting into a slice of melodic driving rock, while the soaring choruses of "Two Hearts" and the suggestive "You're Making Me" seem tailor-made for belting out on the Eurovision stage. Even the tracks packed with crunching rock riffs and hair metal solos, such as the edgier, Evanescence-esque "Take a Stand" and the ballsy opener "Looking for Love," are swamped by Daniel Flores' glossy production, a state of affairs which ensures the record never really ventures outside its default safe mode. Of course, having teamed up with the likes of Robert Säll (Work of Art), Randy Goodrum (Toto), and the Martin Brothers (House of Lords), Storm's focus was always going to remain on its unashamedly bombastic pop choruses, but while Issa possesses a pleasant if inoffensive voice closer to Shania Twain and Delta Goodrem than any hardened rock chick, she lacks the character to elevate their rather formulaic melodies into anything particularly captivating. There are a few interesting musical touches, such as the eerie, horror movie-style synths on the atmospheric "Black Clouds" and the "Beat It"-aping hooks on the punchy, penultimate track "What Does It Take?," but overall, Storm is just a little too derivative and repetitive to appeal to anyone outside its rather niche audience. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi