Patrick Gagliardi, lead singer of the band Storm Force, is taking over the BraveWords Facebook page for a live video stream on Thursday, May 14 at 7 PM EST. Patrick will performing some music from Storm Force's debut album Age Of Fear, sharing some stories and answering your questions. Head over to our Facebook page, be sure to give us a like and be sure to tune in for the stream on May 14!

Storm Force / Brighton Rock guitarist Greg Fraser recently spoke with Bravewords scribe Carl Begai about the Storm Force debut album, Age Of Fear. Following is an excerpt from the story.

“It was about three year in the making, just kinda chipping away at it,” Fraser says of Age Of Fear, having been out of the limelight for several years. “Sometime I wondered if it was ever going to be finished because we’ve got different things going on, but once we got the deal (with Escape Music) it put things into overdrive. We wanted the record to be finished before we started shopping around but it didn’t happen that way, which is kind of a good thing because it could have been another year before the record was done.”

“Any kid that’s 20 years-old today, they’re never going to buy a CD in their lifetime,” he adds. “It’s the people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and older that are willing to buy 10 songs all at once. Kids today… one song at a time and that’s all they need. I’m still old school. If I hear a song I like, I wanna know where the rest of the songs are (laughs). The fact I have a label (Escape Music) that’s willing to print CDs is amazing, because that’s the only way you can make any money off of any product. You can’t make anything off of streaming.”

That said, the motivations behind forming Storm Force according to Fraser had little to do with wanting to make big money or needing the spotlight, and far more to do with being hungry to get new music out into the open.

“I’m a songwriter and I always have songs buzzing around in my head; vocal melodies, a drumbeat, a pattern, a guitar riff… it’s a blessing, but sometimes it’s a curse. I’ll have this stuff buzzing in my head, I’ll record the ideas and maybe finish them off, and the songs start to accumulate. It’s like being a painter and having all your paintings scattered everywhere around the house; at some point it would be nice for someone else to look at them. That’s what it’s like. It had been a while since I’d put a record out and I was really digging what I was hearing in all this stuff coming out of me, so I felt it was time to do one.”

Post-Brighton Rock project Fraze Gang (2006 - 2012) was new territory for Fraser in that he was up front as guitarist and vocalist. Storm Force sees him stepping back from the microphone, which he was only too happy to give up to singer Patrick Gagliardi. He explains:

“Being in Brighton Rock and the other bands I was in, I was just the guitar player. I just played, hang back, didn’t have to worry too much. I found that fronting a band when you’re playing guitar leaves you with much bigger shoes to fill. I’m used to finishing a song, grabbing a beer or a towel for my face before the next song starts while the singer raps with the crowd. You can’t have dead air when you finish a song on stage, so it was tough for me fronting Fraze Gang. Remembering the lyrics, singing in key, playing guitar, all of that… I didn’t like it. I was relieved when the show was over, like ‘Thank God we pulled it off.’ I wasn’t having fun with it. I enjoyed writing and recording the Fraze Gang stuff, but I missed having a frontman and a real singer. I don’t consider myself a phenomenal singer by any stretch, and Patrick singing for Storm Force is unbelievable. He always makes my vocal ideas 10 times better than I thought they would be.”

Fraser is the main songwriter in Storm Force, and he maintains that Age Of Fear was written the same way he wrote for Brighton Rock and Fraze Gang. The album shares a vibe reminiscent of Brighton Rock’s third album, Love Machine, but is far and away from the band first two and ultimately more popular records. Asked if he has any idea why Storm Force stands apart from his previous works, Fraser admits he doesn’t have a concrete answer.

“I think maybe I’m too close to this to answer that. If Gerry McGhee sang these songs I’m pretty sure you’d say ‘Yeah, there’s Brighton Rock.’ I really haven’t changed my approach to songwriting. I write the music and the vocal melodies, I’ll have the basic arrangement done, and then I give it to Patrick (Gagliardi) and he goes with my vocal melodies and writes lyrics, maybe changes things up a bit so the melody feels better for him. I plant the seed and the other come in and add to the ideas. As time goes on other music might rub off on me and influence the way I write, I don’t know.”

Read the complete story here.

The tracklist is as follows:

"Because Of You"
"Age Of Fear"
"Breathe"
"Ember Rain"
"Ride Like Hell"
"Dirty Vegas"
"More Than You Know"
"Marshall Law"
"Different Roads"
"Ringside"

Storm Force is the explosive new band that fans of classic hard melodic rock have all been waiting for. Led by Canadian rock legends Brighton Rock founder and lead guitarist Greg Fraser and featuring one of today’s most powerful and versatile lead vocalists in Patrick Gagliardi (formerly of Surface Tension), their debut record produced by Darius Szczepaniak (Black Crowes, Sum 41, Big Sugar) combines colossal, crushing melodic rock with hook-laden ballads and massive choruses reminiscent of vintage Cinderella, balanced by classic rock sensibilities of acts like The Who and Van Halen.

The group hails from Niagara Falls, Canada and is rounded out by the blistering one-two punch rhythm section of ex-Panik and Step Echo drummer Brian Hamilton and sought-after session musician and touring bassist Mike Beradelli.

Storm Force’s groundbreaking new record is the result of a rich blend of rock influences spanning Triumph, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Foreigner, and so many more, and will be available on Escape Music worldwide. Order your copy now from The Music Shop.

"Beacuse Of You"

"Dirty Vegas"