Rainmaker

Von Groove were a Canadian melodic hard rock band formed in Ontario in 1990 by Michael Shotton, Mladen, and Matthew Gerrard. Built around Shotton’s lead vocals and drums, Mladen’s guitar work, and Gerrard’s bass, keyboards, programming, and harmony vocals, the group arrived at the end of the major-label hard rock era with a polished, hook-driven sound rooted in AOR, arena rock, and early 1990s melodic metal.

The band’s self-titled debut, Von Groove, was released in 1992 and established the core sound that would define their early reputation: large choruses, crisp guitar production, strong harmony vocals, and a balance between hard-driving rock songs and polished power ballads. Produced by Von Groove with Richie Zito and mixed by Brian Malouf, the album also featured notable outside contributors including Deen Castronovo, Norman Arnold, Scott Humphrey, Tommy Funderburk, Al Langlade, Grant Cummings, John Metherell, and Steve McPhail. Songs such as ‘Once Is Not Enough’, ‘Better Than Ever’, ‘Can’t Get Too Much’, ‘House of Dreams’, ‘Arianne’, and ‘Love Keeps Bringing Me Home’ helped make the album a favourite among melodic hard rock and AOR collectors.

Although Von Groove emerged just as mainstream rock tastes were shifting away from the highly produced hard rock sound of the previous decade, the band continued recording through the 1990s and early 2000s. Their follow-up releases included Rainmaker in 1995, Mission Man in 1997, Chameleon in 1998, Test of Faith in 1999, Drivin’ Off the Edge of the World in 2000, Three Faces Past in 2000, and The Seventh Day in 2001. Across these albums, the group retained its melodic hard rock foundation while moving through different international label arrangements, especially in the Japanese and European markets where the band found a lasting audience.

The relationship between Mission Man and Chameleon is especially important in documenting the group’s catalogue. Mission Man appeared in Japan in 1997 on Bareknuckle / Avex, while Chameleon followed in Europe in 1998 on MTM Music with revised artwork, a different running order, and several title and track-list differences. The European version included songs such as ‘Calling The World’, ‘April May’, and ‘Soldier Of Fortune’, while the Japanese issue used the Mission Man title and presented a different configuration. Both releases show the band working from the same mid-period recording sessions, produced and mixed by Von Groove, recorded at The Lab in Toronto and The Junkyard in Burlington, Ontario, and mastered by Brett Zilahi at Metalworks.

Von Groove’s later albums kept the band active in the international melodic rock circuit at a time when much of the North American industry had moved away from the style. Rather than abandoning their original strengths, the group continued to write compact, chorus-forward hard rock built around Shotton’s vocals, Mladen’s guitar-centred arrangements, and Gerrard’s melodic bass and keyboard work. Their catalogue has since remained particularly valued among collectors of Canadian AOR and melodic hard rock, with the Japanese and European editions documenting how strongly the band’s music travelled outside Canada.

-Robert Williston