HERMAN RAREBELL & The Hurricane Orchestra – Scorpion’s Songs Symphonic (2022)
From 1977 to 1996 he was the drummer for 19 years, during the golden age of the Scorpions. 100 million Scorpions albums sold and now, at the age of 70, HERMAN RAREBELL is at it again: together with The Hurricane Orchestra and his band is on tour in Europe performing Scorpions songs with a mix of rock instruments and real orchestra arrangements.
In between the concerts, Rarebell and his new training have locked in the studio. They’re releasing “Scorpion’s Songs Symphonic“, an album of 15 Scorpions (17 in the digital version), re-arranged with symphony sauce. So the rock base of the tracks is added to the “Hurricane Orchestra” interventions, founded specifically for this project.
These are studio recordings with a hard rock sound – with lead vocals by powerhouse Andrew Gräser and Herman & his band – with added orchestra instrumentation. Production is very good, with all the guitars, bass, drums and vocals really well mixed with strings, oboe, flute, etc.
It took over 1,5 years of preparation to arrange every Scorpions hit for all orchestral instruments. Most of the tracks are songs written by Herman Rarebell.
The Hurricane Orchestra was created specially for ”Scorpion’s Songs Symphonic”, consisting of virtuosos having few things in common: they are all passionate symphony lovers and rock-addicted musicians. The Conductor and the director of the orchestra, Viktoria Tsanko, stays also a conductor of the symphony orchestra of the Transcarpathian Regional Philharmonic for the last 13 years.
While the concept is to add new color to these songs, Rarebell and his band opted for a straight hard rock delivery here: full guitar riffs, bass drums and vocals. Thus, on “Big City Nights”, “No One Like You”, “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, the symphonic arrangements are discreet, and constitute at most a pleasant accompaniment. Bowed string instruments, brass instruments and female choirs bring additional depth to these pieces interpreted with respect and successfully.
There’a some songs where I would like to hear more ‘orchestra’, like on “Still Loving You”, where the strings are a little academic and end abruptly.
Some pieces gain in beauty and depth through the orchestra: “Falling In Love”, also embellished with a dantesque solo, “Passion Rules the Game”, and especially “Don’t Stop At The Top”, two nuggets from the underrated Savage Amusement (1988), are some of the remarkable.
Herman has nothing to prove. Having co-written one of the most interesting catalogs of the hard rock scene, the musician can legitimately revisit it with acoustic, symphonic, or even ska-punk arrangements if that pleases him. It is up to us, listeners, to join the process or not.
But believe me the result on “Scorpion’s Songs Symphonic” is up to the expectations. The interpretation is talented, convincing, and very well recorded & executed.
Highly Recommended
01 – Rock You Like A Hurricane
02 – Big City Nights
03 – No One Like You
04 – Still Loving You
05 – Tease Me Please Me
06 – Falling In Love
07 – You Give Me All I Need
08 – Passion Rules The Game
09 – Is There Anybody There
10 – Always Somewhere
11 – Loving You Sunday Morning
12 – Send Me An Angel
13 – White Dove
14 – Don’t Stop At The Top
15 – Wind Of Change
16 – Holiday
17 – Moments Of Glory
Andrew Gräser – lead vocals
Christos Efstathiou – guitar
Fabian Nafziger – guitar
Julian Heller – percussion
Sam Zarrinkoub – bass
Herman Rarebell – drums, vocals
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www.amazon.com/dp/B09JGPB5FC
