The third album from Texas based husband and wife act Wildestarr has quite a sad background in that the project was born from the tragic suicide of singer London Wilde‘s brother, Gary, in 2012. Married for over fifteen years, Wilde and husband/guitarist/bassist Dave Starr formed the band in 2003, with the current line-up completed by drummer Josh Foster who joined for the band’s previous album, A Tell Tale Heart (Scarlet) in 2012.

Unsurprisingly, considering its history, Beyond the Rain (Scarlet) is quite a dramatic sounding slab of US Melodic Power Metal, similar in style to Starr’s former bands, Chastain, and Vicious Rumors. Beginning with instrumental ‘Metamorphose’, the title track takes over with a chunky riff and soaring vocals from Wilde. ‘Pressing the Wires’ is a speedy affair with some piercing Rob Halford style screams, ‘Double Red’ is driven by a powerful mid-paced riff, and features a great solo from Starr, and power ballad ‘Down Cold’ is dominated by Wilde’s strident tones.

The main riff to ‘Rage and Water’ could have been written for Pantera, ‘Crimson Fifths’ is another power ballad, but darker and more memorable than the previous one, while the militaristic ‘Undersold’ picks things up again, and penultimate track ‘From Shadow’ skulks and crawls towards the album’s climax, the quite superb, riff-laden finale of ‘When The Night Falls’.

Fans of Starr’s previous work will not be disappointed here as his aggressive playing complements his wife’s expressions of pain and hope. A dark, but powerful album that harks back to late eighties and early nineties, with some songs not sounding a million miles away from Skid Row‘s Subhuman Race (Atlantic) in tone and use of effects, Beyond the Rain is another solid release from a very underrated band.

7.0/10

GARY ALCOCK