HURRICANE were a short-lived ’80s band, known for featuring members with more famous brothers at the time (Robert Sarzo and Tony Cavazo, who both had brothers in Quiet Riot). Hurricane also featured 2 others who would be much more known years later – Kelly Hansen and Jay Schellen. They recorded an EP, and 2 LPs, the first LP Over The Edge being somewhat successful with the hit “I’m On To You”, as well as a cover of Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen”, with the album being produced by Bob Ezrin! The band’s 1990 follow-up featured Doug Aldrich on guitar (replacing Sarzo). The band split, with Hansen joining Schellen for one Unruly Child album in 1998, as well as singing on Stuart Smith’s debut Heaven And Earth, and then collaborating on an album with Tim Donahue (Into The Light, 2000). In 2001 Hansen and Schellen recorded a new album under the Hurricane name, but without Sarzo or Cavazo, instead using bass player Larry Antonino (Unruly Child) and a number of guitar players, mostly Sean Manning. With all the hoopla over Kelly Hansen’s time with Foreigner coming to an end with the ‘farewell tour’, I pulled this out a while back and had it in the car. I forgot just how good this album was!

Certainly better than the previous Hurricane album, and more guitar heavy, less polished, with lots of really good songs on it. Liquifury opens with what sounds like a guy driving in the rain and flipping radio channels – of which each is playing an old Hurricane song, before tuning to the next one and the rocking opener “River Gold” kicks in. A shame this album likely didn’t get a lot of attention at the time, tracks like “Heart Made Of Stone”, “New God”, and “Torn” are some of the best songs ever released under the Hurricane name. This album definitely sounds more ‘live’ than the previous ones. Best pick for a hit single here is the heavy power ballad “Happy To Be Your Fool”. A solid album, well worth revisiting if you can find it.

Soon after this Hansen would go on to join Foreigner and sang on the Can’t Slow Down album, which I don’t think is as good as Liquifury! Schellen went on to work with Asia (featuring John Payne), GPS, Unruly Child, and eventually YES. Sarzo and Cavazo have recently resurrected Hurricane with a new singer and drummer (and the drummer’s last name is Hansen!). I imagine due to Kelly Hansen’s commitments to Foreigner and Schellen’s commitments to YES, neither were available for this, a shame I guess as I think of Hansen’s vocals when I think of Hurricane… (the same way some may think of Lou Gramm and Foreigner 😉 ). But anyway, the new Hurricane album is called Reconnected and is out this month, so I’ll be checking that out soon.