Label: AFM Records
Release date: 03.04.2020
Production: Hans Ziller
Album length: 47.48 min
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Bonfire are legends of German hard rock. Over their long career the band has been through good times and bad, plenty of ups and downs, but somehow they always stuck around and survived, even when it looked like it was all over. There was always someone to keep the wagon rolling. Since 2015 it’s been hauled forward with real determination by the only founding and original member left, guitarist Hans Ziller, who is surrounded in today’s Bonfire by considerably younger but very experienced musicians. After the addition of the excellent vocalist Alexx Stahl (Roxxcalibur, Purple Rising) in 2016, the quintet quickly put out two new studio albums and a compilation of covers, »Legends«. Two years after its predecessor »Temple Of Lies«, the third one with the new singer in the lineup is here: »Fistful Of Fire«. Still, there was no getting away without another shake-up. This time it’s the drummer’s seat, where Tim Breidebandn has been replaced by Andre Hilgers (ex-Rage, Axxis).
We got a solid 48 minutes of fresh musical storytelling that once again shows off all the qualities Bonfire have taught us to expect over the years. »Fistful Of Fire« is a first-rate new hard rock foldout, cut strictly to the recipe of the German school. It’s hard to lean on comparisons with the golden days of »Don’t Touch The Light« and »Fireworks«, and yet the whole thing under Ziller’s leadership holds up with unbelievable stylistic credibility. The thread is there to be heard, and it hits that nostalgic nerve. Ziller is a guitarist of his own kind, a visionary of his own kind, and Bonfire, even in a brand-new lineup, keep their own distinctive sound and style. And who says that in rock it all doesn’t rise and fall on the guitarists? Hans Ziller is really the first address for why Bonfire, in these new times, are absolutely their own musical story, even though, as we know, hard rock as a genre runs out of room for expression pretty fast.
Ziller has an excellent guitar partner at his side in Frank Pané, who deserves every bit of trust. Alongside Ziller, this guy also gets actively involved in the soloing within the mid-eight passages and jumps into all the three-part harmonies too — in short, he stands shoulder to shoulder with him. Then there’s the pulsing bass of American musician Ronnie Parkes, perhaps known to the connoisseurs from his work with Seven Witches, but above all it’s the other two members who matter most. The first is the thrilling drummer Andre Hilgers, a real destructive drumming machine! One of the most respected and all-round best drummers of his generation in Germany. The second is the outstanding vocalist Alexx Stahl.
The chemistry works! What more can you say? The bonfire has properly blazed up again! »Fistful Of Fire« feels like the album of a band, not of an individual or a project. It feels alive, incinerating, takes no prisoners. It grabs you with its intensity and works as if Bonfire had played a gig together in the studio for this album and recorded it in one take. Of course they didn’t. But it evokes that feeling. The unbridled Alexx Stahl is incredible, developing amazing vocal power in any register, and it’s staggering when he leaps up the vocal line by a few octaves with feather-light ease, still wrecking everything with sheer vocal force up in the extreme heights. The piercing, authoritative vocals put the necessary dot on the »i« of the otherwise inventive and catchy phrases, and the songs gain a real character as Stahl brings them to life from the core. Hilgers is a huge asset for Ziller. His rolls are downright monstrous, the explosiveness unbelievable, the control and speed! In the transitions he shines with inventive and thrilling solutions (Ride the Blade), and when needed he gladly stomps on the double bass drum pedal too (the title track) .Go on, take on hard rock like that if you dare! Yes. The new Bonfire are developing a vampiric, extremely pouty and metallized sound. That’s hardly surprising, since they served up that kind of sound on the previous three albums too, and yet the new one seems a touch more ruffled up. Maybe it’s down to the relentless character of the riffs that keep the album in dynamic drive, and the exceptional Andre Hilgers, who holds the framework of this galloping beast together. The new Bonfire sound is comparable to the tightness of the likes of Pretty Maids, and with Hilgers in the lineup they now come across as a truly flawless story. As if all the pieces of the puzzle had finally fallen into the right place.
The songs build up a high level of pomp and theatrical drama, reaching emotional peaks in choruses with great musical payoff. The band has also put together ten songs, all of which boast plenty of variety in ideas. As a rule the tracks run from fast to speeded-up, and there’s loads of »cheekily passionate« blasting on the album. The exception is the semi-ballad When An Old Man Cries, which stays immune to pathos and sugar overload. Just the bare recipe of first-rate German hard rock, kicking you in the forehead like crazy. The tunes stand up great. The arrangements are polished. The consistency of this album is strong and pronounced. In that it even outdoes the previous three albums. There’s no dip in quality between them, and the album simply has to be listened to in one go. From start to finish. Along the way there are three introductory instrumental preludes, something Bonfire already practiced in the eighties.
So »Fistful Of Fire« is one of the better hard rock albums to come out in the first half of this year. Next to the new Gotthard album »#13«, it’s a must for all the »surviving« fans of the genre. It doesn’t get more German than this. At the same time, Bonfire stay true to themselves with it, carrying on rattling away with relentless, old-school conviction and making sure the flame of classic German hard rock doesn’t go out.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. The Joker
2. Gotta Get Away
3. The Devil Made Me Do It
4. Ride The Blade
5. When An Old Man Cries
6. Rock’n’Roll Survivors
7. The Surge
8. Gloryland
9. Fire And Ice
10. Warrior
11. Fire Etude
12. Breaking Out
13. Fistful Of Fire
Lineup:
Alexx Stahl – vocals, backing vocals
Hans Ziller – guitar, keyboards
Frank Pané – guitar
Ronnie Parkes – bass guitar
André Hilgers – drums
