AFTER RAIN – Vitorlát Szélbe / Sky

The debut album of Hungarian band After Rain is something quite unique, but that is not only because of the music. The album contains two CDs, one in the band’s native language and one in English. The same tracklist, but on two different CDs, and the booklet includes lyrics to both versions side by side. After Rain remain in their local market, which demands Hungarian lyrics, but try not to limit their international sales potential at the same time.

Note: Without being able to understand Hungarian one can only assume that the lyrics mean the same, although some song titles show considerable differences, for example “10 Perc” translates into “Player”, and one wonders where the “10” went in the English title?. Also, the English pendent of the title track of the Hungarian version Vitorlat Szelbe would be “It’s A New Day, while the English CD is called Sky.

A very interesting concept, which hopefully pays off for the three guys and the beautiful female singer Anett Horvath, as the album could best be described as the Hungarian answer to Pat Benatar in her Hard Rock phase, somewhere between Crimes Of Passion and Wide Awake In Dreamland. If Vitorlat Szelbe would have been released with her name on it, it would have become a landmark in her career!

Let’s hope that After Rain will be successful with their debut since all songs deserve one’s attention. And that is not only the case when the four are close to said famous artist as they are in “10 Perc”/”Player” or “Halo”/”Butterfly”, but also for their musical variety which ranges from Melodic Rock/Metal like in “Ne Kerdezd Miert”/”Don’t Ask Me Why” to AOR like in “Forr Az Ut”/”Running”. The album also contains a fair share of ballads, mostly in the second half of the album, which one may expect from an album of this musical style. And one may expect the ballads to be good, too, which After Rain deliver.

Several influences of successful music may be detected as well: Anett Horvath’s comfortingly melodic voice can be a bit Doro-esque like in “Hogyha Jot Akarsz”/”Curse For You”, and the musical arrangement of the track “Tengernel”/”But You Are Not That” reminds a bit of mid-Eighties’ The Police, of course without the “Sting-y feel”.

Just as one reaches the end of this beautiful album, the band delivers their longest and best composition on the album. “A Felhok Feherek”/”Sky Is Blue” crosses over into Progressive Rock, almost even Progressive Metal, slightly reminiscent of British Proggers IQ especially during the solo section. What a great way to end a fantastic album, inducing the urge to just press “play” again and enjoy the album one more time. Or better yet, how about listening to the Hungarian version for a change?

A clear and good production, skilled musicianship, and excellent compositions. If one is looking for some hardly known underground stuff but does not want to step back quality wise, After Rain’s Vitorlat Szelbe is the album to get.