Build up the fire
Artiste: Bonfire
Nationality: German
Album: Free
Year: 2003
Label: Sony BMG
Genre: Heavy Metal/Heavy Rock
Tracks:
On and on...
I would do anything 4 U
What about love?
Rock 'n' roll star (Born to rock)
Free
Preachers and whores
Love CCA
Give a little
September on my mind
Friends
Chronological position: Ninth album
Familiarity: "Rebel soul", "Feels like comin' home"
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: On the lighter side of metal, but not quite AOR.
Best track(s): Free, Give a little, Love CCA, Preachers and whores, September on my mind, Friends
Worst track(s): Rock'n'roll star (Born to rock)
Comments: First time I heard Bonfire I would have sworn they were American; they certainly have that sound down pat and there's little of the German accent in singer Claus Lessman's voice, and they sing like some rebel band from the Deep South, but it's from Bavaria they hail, distancing themselves from the giants of their home country (Helloween, Scorpions, Accept et al) by not quite turning their backs on their national heritage but definitely making an attempt to sound like a band from the US.
This is their ninth album, and it's full of the hard rock/heavy metal they purvey so well. Straddling a delicate line between I guess what you'd call "melodic metal" --- it's not really fair to call them AOR, though some of their music does tip precariously into that area --- and straight ahead metal, they avoid the thrash/speed/power leanings of their contempories, even bands like Axxis, Blind Guardian and Primal Fear (who they cheekily namecheck). There's a nice Queen sound to the guitars in the opener,
On and on... and almost Beatles rock in
I would do anything 4 U, while
What about love isn't a cover of the Heart hit, but their own original song.
Apparently their fans didn't like this change in direction, and to be fair it's a distance removed from the other albums I've heard from Bonfire, more in the rock sphere than metal really, but I still like what I'm hearing. Often German metal bands in particular fall into the trap of sounding the same every album, with little or no progression or experimentation, so it's nice to see these guys take a chance. May not have worked out for them commercially, but that's the risk you take, hey?
The title track is a nice acoustic-style ballad, and it's not the only one on the album, with surprisingly Christian overtones, though it's a bit annoying to hear Lessman's lisp on the chorus ---
"Now I'm fwee/ Fwee from all the pain!" Hmm. Some great burning fretwork from Hans Ziller at the end, though his use of a sitar on
Preachers and whores must have got up fans' noses, as I can't see him having used the instrument after this album. Song's a good rocker though.
That sitar comes back for another of the ballads, "Give a little", then "September on my mind" is a big, epic, dramatic retelling of the 9/11 attacks (again, this plays into Bonfire's almost impersonation of an American band; though of course the WTC attacks affected us all, generally you expect US bands to write songs about them. It's almost "their" disaster...) which is fittingly the heaviest song on the album by a long way. The lyric in the chorus, though, is a little hard to take: "We're American/ Sayin' it with pride" --- er, no, you're not guys, no matter how much you might want to be: you're German. Perhaps this is why your fans give you such a hard time?
Overall impression: Generally I'd think Bonfire became more a heavy rock band than a heavy metal one here, but there's no dip in the quality of the music. A brave decision which I applaud.
Intention: More Bonfire albums to check out...