Storm
Don't Waste Your Time

“It’s never too late” is the appropriate proverb to associate with these Storm, a Bolognese quintet active in the second half of the eighties, but at the time not having released any official market outputs. Often things, however, fall into place, you just have to wait… and this recent publication (2024) undertakes to do justice, formally disseminating those couple of demos that were then self-produced by the group in cassette form.

The booklet of the CD in question is explanatory in this regard: the tape with the first demo “Don’t Waste Your Time”, containing four tracks, saw the light in 1988, while the subsequent and final demo “Hard Times”, with six tracks, followed two years later in 1990, not long before the formation dispersed, apparently definitively.

The motto of the Storm, as read in their logo, is Audience Oriented Rock, a variation with poetic license of the well-known Adult Oriented Rock (acronym AOR, for non-music aficionados), a subgenre coined in America but with various exponents also in England, and a musical category that can be roughly framed as tough and melodic, strong and sweet, rough but also engaging and accessible. In the days of the Storm, AOR was in its golden season, raging beyond and across the Atlantic with names like Toto, Boston, Journey, Foreigner, Bryan Adams, Heart, Starship, Survivor… all people who sold millions and millions of records.

The Heart in particular, a Seattle quintet led by two sisters, singer Ann Wilson and guitarist Nancy, seem to have been the major inspiration for these Storm, at least in terms of look. Look, for that matter, at the album photo, with our guys perfectly bedecked in the role: the drummer with the right biceps out, guitarist and bassist surrounded by then canonically young Bon Jovi curls, keyboardist and singer impeccably recalling the (talented) charms of the Wilson sisters.

And the music? Yes, it's American-style melodic hard rock of that time, with its decisive pieces but without exaggeration and its paced and romantic ballads, with excellent compositional and arranging veins. Over everything, the contribution of singer Mary Boschi is dominant: her almost operatic style (her artistic training in this sense is evident) gives the Storm their main peculiarity. The passion, the almost gothic intensity of Mary's delivery leans on the excellent guitar threads, a guiding instrument of the ensemble as almost always happens in rock, and equally on the baroqueness and “swelling” of the keyboards, generating a lyrical and dramatic AOR, vibrant and convincing.

The gap between the two demos, the two-year distance between the first and second, the different moments, and the different recording studios used, are all audible. The motivational quality is a common presence to both, but the first four songs appear more naïve, more spontaneous, more straightforward compared to those of the second demo, better produced, more “chewed over” and arranged, ultimately played and sung with more care and with better machinery. This, I repeat, at equal melodic and thematic value: everyone can decide which of the two Storm moments they prefer.

“Don’t Waste Your Time”, the song that gives the album its title and opening, debuts with a solo guitar overture that soon slips into a riff as simple as it is effective; then yielding the stage to the singing, initially interrogative in the verses, then explosive and memorable in the chorus. Curious and inspired is the epilogue, an obsessive keyboard arpeggio that sneaks between the resonant syncopations of the guitar, towards the final fade.

“I’Don’t Know” could not be more contrasting: a very melodic and “swollen” piano and string arpeggio, made dynamic by the unison guitar and bass breaks; we’re definitely in Journey territory in terms of melody and spatial senses amongst the instruments. On this base, again Mary’s voice dithers in the verses then explodes, dramatic and inimitable, in the imperious and evocative chorus. The tension rises (choruses) and releases (verses, even the guitar solo) to mark a very dense and theatrical episode.

“Shock Me” is instead much more sunny, marked by a Boston-style electric arpeggio and the sparkling phrasing of the singing, which then resolve into a convincing chorus that moves from minor to major mode: a little gem of melodic rock, preceding the power ballad “Dreaming All Night”, a decidedly piano and voice affair, interpreted by Boschi, perhaps remembering some of her sentimental affair, with all the possible conviction and passion.

The fifth track “What Can I Do?”, or rather the beginning of the second demo, is a resolute hard rock that takes its cue from a complex synthesized initial sequence, which then unexpectedly disappears allowing guitar bass and drums to take center stage, on whose syncopations the lead voice phrases effectively, until it falls and stretches in the sonorous chorus. Immediately noticeable, compared to the first four tracks, is the greater efficacy of the choirs and the greater “depth” of the instruments (here the keyboard is just an outline, merely “breaking off” here and there together with the guitar).

“Don’t You Leave Me” is the second power ballad and this time the keyboards do things in a big way: a true orchestral arrangement, discreet yet refined, for a fundamentally piano-based piece sewn to the intensity of the singer, capable of pouring a unique and excellent pathos into a few phrases. In the chorus come the obligatory hard guitars to set the music in the favored genre, as was often done in the ballads of that rock season. Almost colorful guitar solo, which takes off from a key change to climb, with harmonized doubling towards territories, one could dare to say, dear to people like Steve Vai, not to mention Brian May.

“Believe in Yourself”, in a just and better world, would be the “single” of the album. Everything is perfect: disorienting prologue, decisive impetus, clamorous refrain, very accessible, irresistible, with rich and perfect choral harmonies, Mary and her partners at their best, beautifully produced in the studio in a sunny and cheerful hard pop rock episode. Had a sharp American producer intercepted it at the time… (he would’ve “stolen” it and had it sung, say, by Pat Benatar, haha).

With “Hard Times”, the song that titled the second demo, it seems at first to hear “What Can I Do” again: there is once again a layered keyboard absolution, which this time resolves into a rocky blues-flavored riff, which would have pleased Jimmy Page. But there are surprises: guitar and rhythm dissolve early into an enveloping synthesizer carpet, on which the voice confidently delivers its verses. Counterpoint breaks from the other instruments arrive, but the rhythm comes only in the chorus. Canonical passage of solo guitar, one last chorus, and once again the bluesy riff to conclude as it started: great piece, the least AOR of the batch.

Not so for “Fly Away” which, in the same just world mentioned earlier, would have been the second single: an effective keyboard phrase, the usual mighty “upper passage” of the singing at the moment of the chorus, key change on minor chords for the soloist’s few moments of spotlight and off again with the final refrains. Another jewel, of pure AOR.

The concluding “I Need You” rests on a tight stopped guitar rhythm, defining a rock’n’roll out of the canons, with nice variations, for instance, the slide guitar solo, but a bit less refined than the previous episodes and certainly less fluid, due to slightly tortuous rhythmic passages.

There were ideas and personality in the Storm. Their album is a faithful representation of its time regarding sounds, arrangements, goals. The mastering from the old tapes could have been conducted more accurately, especially in the tails and beginnings of the tracks, but great kudos must be given to those who took the initiative for its publication and to all those who contributed.