Violent Storm was founded by Mick Cervino in 2004. This multi-guitar player from Argentina has performed on the G3 2003 tour; as well as with Yngwie Malmsteen and Ritchie Blackmore. With Storm Warning he releases a heavy hard rock album. He got the help of some well known musicians such as Malmsteen and K.K. Downing, who played some solos on the Storm Warrior-album. The latter was also responsible for the production of the songs.

The music is best described as a combination of metal and hard rock, with emphasis on the guitar playing parts with guest guitar players. The opening track ‘War no More’ bangs out of the speakers, a fast song that could be part of the self-titled Masterplan album of 2002. The singer Matt Reardon does remind me of Jorn Lande, specially during the fast songs. On this song K.K. Downing takes care of the guitar solo himself. I like this song (fast, melodic end full of energy). The other song with K.K. on the strings is a Judas Priest song, with typical riffs and melody.

The songs with Malmsteen are rather disappointing, ‘Fire in the Unknown’ is a fast song, Malmsteen is playing very fast but the solo is a repetition of solos he has played many times before.

The second song with Malmsteen, ‘Pain’, sounds more heavy and therefore fits a lot better with Malmsteen’s solo, but both songs don’t really fit the album, the sound differs too much with the other songs. ‘Screaming in Your Face’ is a heavy rock song with great riffs and guitar solos (Roy Z); together with ‘War no More’ these songs are my favorites with strong melody, catchy metal riffs, a lot of energy, great vocals and melodic guitar solos. The other songs aren’t that convincing.

The last song is the Blackmore’s Night cover ‘Storm’ and as you may know, I don’t like covers. This song doesn’t add anything to the original song.

Storm Warrior is an album that contains too many influences of other bands and therefore Violent Storm has no sound of its own, for me this is a minus point. Mick Cervino has enough quality to make an album of his own. Another minus point is the length of the album; just 35 minutes. From my point of view this is rather short.

For those of you who like hard rock music based on heavy rock of the previous century, you should listen the album.