BRAINSTORM

The monumental opening of BRAINSTORM´s new album “On The Spur Of The Moment” displays the strengths of the German power metal force at their very best: atmospheric buildup, powerful riffing, excellent fine-tuning and the expressive vocals of Andy B. Franck make “Below The Line” the perfect opening track, one that will be embraced by fans of the Queensryche high times. But as everyone knows, BRAINSTORM is much more than this and the following 45 minutes are again proof of the band´s versatility and exceptional class. This is tasteful power metal that doesn´t deny BRAINSTORM´s roots but also shows that the band is living in the here and now. So besides typical BRAINSTORM songs like “Still Insane”, the up-tempo smashers „Where Your Actions Lead You To Live” and „ A Life On Hold“, you´ll find a track like “In These Walls”, whose powerful-sagging rhythm and riffs are accompanied by fragile piano lines. The grooving “Temple Of Stone” has had its baptism of fire already on the Bang Your Head and Masters Of Rock festivals. “On The Spur Of The Moment” will surely amaze every fan of the band. A big credit goes to Axel Heckert, with whom the band recorded the album in the Studio 22 in Ludwigsburg. Heckert is a declared fan of the band and his approach secured that „On The Spur Of The Moment“ sounds just as it was necessary. Beside this it´s obvious that BRAINSTORM have reached a whole new musical level with this amazing new piece of work. BRAINSTORM were founded in 1989 by Torsten Ihlenfeld, Milan Loncaric and drummer Dieter Bernert. The first years saw the band build a solid groundwork with several demo releases and live appearances. In 1997 then BRAINSTORM signed their first record deal, the self-produced “Hungry” album was released and received good critics. Just a year later the band was back in the studio to record their second album “Unholy”, this time under the aegis of Charlie Bauerfeind and Dirk Schlächter. On the following European tour with Iced Earth all expectations were fulfilled, before BRAINSTORM made the next important step in their career with the addition of new vocalist Andy B. Franck to the band´s ranks. The third album “Ambiguity” was released shortly after and again received lots of praise from the press. In October 2001 BRAINSTORM released their next album “Metus Mortis”, which should become their international breakthrough. Numerous European magazines awarded it as “album of the month”. In 2003 “Soul Temptation” was unleashed, an album that should further increase the band´s status. Chart entries in numerous European countries followed and the intense BRAINSTORM live performances were solidifying the band in the champion´s league of metal. Who would have thought that their next album „Liquid Monster“ (2005) should again be a huge progress? – In fact it was: Europe-wide chart entries and a successful hit single (“All Those Words”) caused that BRAINSTORM were invited to play all important festivals. Some of these appearances were released on the “Honey From The B’s” double-DVD that came out a bit later and was also used to shorten the time before the next studio album. “Downburst” was then released in January 2008. Not even 2 years after, BRAINSTORM celebrated their first release for AFM, “Memorial Roots”, which will now be followed by “On The Spur Of The Moment”, the newest product of Germany´s quality metal warrant. „On The Spur Of The Moment“ is an incredible power metal album, that again underlines the exceptional status of BRAINSTORM.