Classic Rock Revisted's Jeb Wright has issued an interview conducted with WHITESNAKE / BURNING RAIN guitarist Doug Aldrich. An excerpt follows:

Q: Tell me the history of Burning Rain.

A: "The band started in 1998 and was pretty much exclusively released in Japan, as I had a following in Japan from bands I had been in called LION and BAD MOON RISING. This band, pretty much, picked up where they left off. We were influenced a little bit by bands like Whitesnake. We put out a record and the response in Japan was good enough that a year later we went in and recorded another one. The second one was even better. On the first album, it really came across that we were a new band and we were hungry sounding. The second one had a little more depth. The songwriting had expanded. Neither album ever came out in the US or Europe.

During that time, I started doing some sessions with Jimmy Bain, who was in RAINBOW and DIO back in the day, and that led to me getting the opportunity with Dio. From there, I went to Whitesnake and that is why Burning Rain stopped. When I joined Ronnie’s band, and later, David’s band, I became too busy to do anything else. I am really blessed to have been able to be in both of their bands.

With David, the chemistry we have together is amazing. We started out just playing together, but when David and I started doing some writing together, then that led to new music for Whitesnake. When that happened, there was no longer time for me to do anything else.

In 2004, we had taken some time off. I got a call that year from Frontiers Records and they asked me if I would like to do a third Burning Rain album. I told them I thought that would be a great opportunity and that I would love to do it, but I had to work around Whitesnake’s schedule, as that was, let’s call it my day gig. It’s a great day gig, by the way!

I told them that we had a tour coming in fall of 2004 and that I would love to do it when I had some free time. Since then, and this is the truth, Whitesnake has been so busy that I just did not have any free time. I’ve put all my time into new WS music and helping DC with whatever needed to get done."

Read the full interview at this location.

Frontiers Records released Burning Rain’s third studio album, Epic Obsession, on May 17th in Europe and May 21st in North America.

Burning Rain was founded by Doug Aldrich, together with singer Keith St. John (ex-MONTROSE). The lineup for the new album is rounded out by Sean McNabb on bass (ex-QUIET RIOT, DOKKEN, HOUSE OF LORDS) and Mat Starr on drums (ACE FREHLEY).

Epic Obsession comes after a long hiatus from the release of the band’s second album, Pleasure To Burn, in 2000.

Of Epic Obsession, Aldrich commented, “I think we have a good batch of songs that will stand up. It’s a melodic blues rock approach to the band’s sound. It’s really the only thing I have done outside of Whitenake in the last ten years.”

Epic Obsession tracklisting:

'Sweet Little Baby Thing'

'The Cure'

'Till You Die'

'Heaven Gets Me By'

'Pray Out Loud'

'Our Time Is Gonna Come'

'Too Hard To Break'

'My Lust Your Fate'

'Made For Your Heart'

'Ride The Monkey'

'Out In The Cold Again'

'When Can I Believe In Love: Kashmir' *

'Heaven Gets Me By' (acoustic) *

* - bonus tracks

A new EPK for the release can be seen below:

More on Burning Rain at this location.