Whether it’s in music or in life: clarity is always the best argument if you want to convince people. Everybody knows where they stand, nobody is left in the dark, reliability and dependability are characteristics that everybody appreciates. Mad Max are musically unambiguous and have been for almost forty years. Their deeply melodic hard rock, driven by haunting guitar riffs, catchy vocals and a rhythm section with an infallible timing, has never lost its contours and honesty. Virtues that apply not only to all previous releases by the band consisting of Michael Voss (vocals/guitar), Jürgen Breforth (guitar), Axel Kruse (drums) and Thomas "Hutch" Bauer (bass), but also to their latest offering, Stormchild Rising.

Stormchild Rising celebrates a musical direction that has never lost its significance, despite all trends and short-lived fashions, and that’s also what Mad Max’s fans demand vociferously. “On our last tour we talked to fans from lots of different countries every night and found out that they don’t want us to experiment, they want to hear exactly the kind of songs that Mad Max have been known for since 1981,” says Breforth, looking back at the important insights gained during their tour supporting their previous album, Thirty 5.

How exactly this unambiguousness sounds in 2020 is revealed by the first single release "Hurricaned", supported by a lyric video clip and socio-critical message. “We’re all subjected to a veritable hurricane of media overkill every day and can hardly process that flood of information,” Breforth explains the lyric, which was written before the Corona crisis and hence has almost prophetic traits. “With the relentless coverage of the pandemic since spring 2020, the media overkill has grown even worse.” Musically, ‘Hurricaned’ is Mad Max’s homage to Rainbow and their frontman Ronnie Romero, whom they met during their joint tour with CoreLeoni and who shares the vocals on ‘Hurricaned’ with Michael Voss. You can watch the lyric video below.

Stormchild Rising will be released as a CD DigiPak, limited vinyl, CD/LP bundle with shirt (exclusively in the Steamhammer Shop) download and stream on August 21 via SPV/Steamhammer. Pre-order here.

Tracklisting:

"Hurricaned"
"Talk To The Moon"
"Eyes Of Love"
"Ladies And Gentlemen"
"Mindhunter"
"Rain Rain"
"Gemini"
"Kingdom Fall"
"The Blues Ain't No Stranger"
"Take Her"
"Busted"
"Ladies And Gentlemen" (Single Edit, Bonus Track) (Feat. Detlev Jöcker And The Rock And Roll Children)

"Hurricaned" lyric video:

(Photo - Sebastian Stumpe/Affen.Auf.Ruhr)