Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Ring Of Fire
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2014
Length: 52:02
Rating: 4/5
Ring Of Fire are a super power metal band in which, back in the day, titanic musical virtuosos »bent« and »twisted« their instruments, people like American keyboardist Steve Weingart (Steve Lukather Band), American bassist Philip Bynoe (Steve Vai, G3,…), Australian drummer Virgil Donati (Steve Vai, Planet X,..) and Swedish bassist Bjorn Englen (Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Uli Jon Roth,…). And all these high-flying names have one thing in common! Over their careers, every one of them worked with the renowned and respected guitar wizard Tony MacAlpine on his solo studio records. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire! So when we talk about Ring Of Fire, wherever Tony MacAlpine is, you’ll also find the superb American singer Mark Boals (Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Royal Hunt).
The Boals/MacAlpine partnership has been the backbone of Ring Of Fire since 2000! Between 2001 and 2004 the band put out three studio albums, then vanished from the scene. The members simply turned their attention to other musical challenges and projects. And after ten years? The band’s fourth studio album is finally here. They’ve beefed up the lineup with Russian, classically trained keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij, who, while working alongside Tony MacAlpine in Trans Siberian Orchestra and with Steve Vai, grabbed MacAlpine’s invitation to join Ring Of Fire. Two special guests also lent a hand on the fourth album: former Stratovarious boss Timo Tolkki, who, you won’t believe it, plays “only” bass guitar on the record, and another Finn, drummer Jami Huovinen (who previously played drums for the lesser-known band The Sentiment). So this is exactly what Ring Of Fire need. A dozen classically trained musicians who flawlessly turn those elements into the magic of metal through their arrangements. And that magic, at its core, is all about putting bombast and perfected melodic hooks front and center.
»Battle Of Leningrad« is a concept album. You don’t need Einstein to unravel the story behind it. It’s about the heroism of the Russian people, who were surrounded in the city of Leningrad (today once again St. Petersburg) between September 1941 and January 1944. Despite the German siege and the horrifying tragedy, the population didn’t buckle, even though a million people died of hunger alone. If Accept are busy with Stalingrad, then Ring Of Fire are busy with Leningrad. The concept fits them like a glove. No need to guess that the members are big fans of Russian classical music. So they tied the »Russian story« concept to the legacy of Russian composers. The opening Mother Russia gives that away right off the bat, and throughout the album, segments of recognizable Russian suites like to sneak into the ornaments or the solo wizardry of MacAlpine and Kuprij, a welcome spice for a concept album, making sure it really smells Russian.
Ring Of Fire aren’t bringing any musical revolution with this album, but it’s undeniably their most mature record to date. A ten-year gap between the new album and the previous one is plenty of time for some truly inspired ideas to be born, ideas for pompously catchy, melodically perfected tunes masterfully crossed with metal punch and sophisticated neo-classical touches. Given the pedigree of the musicians working under the Ring Of Fire banner, there’s no doubt they’d deliver on the ideas just as you’d expect from them. Confidently, and at a truly high level of quality.
And the result? A symphonic power metal album with progressive touches. It couldn’t be any other way. Here we’re dealing with sorcerers of improvisation who wisely keep a compact form, a flawless collision of metal and classical music elements. The crew doesn’t allow itself any musical experiment that would cause “fragmentation” of the record, with songs falling apart through their motifs. Everything is nicely textbook, »framed« and subordinated to melody. This is an album that slots automatically in next to its three older studio siblings, and fans of the more sophisticated side of Royal Hunt, as well as the older work of Yngwie J. Malmsteen, will prick up their ears to it too. The idea for “Battle Of Leningrad” is an old one, but the sketches waited until 2012, when Boals and MacAlpine agreed with Kuprij to bring Ring Of FIre back to life. The work of Kuprij and MacAlpine is breathtaking in its solo moments, while Boals delivers a seething, sensual, clean melodic and authoritative presence that makes no secret of the fact he spent his school years listening to Ronnie James Dio and Tony Martin. At times he even climbs into the heights of Michael Vescera (Loudness). His voice still serves him excellently, and Boals gives a truly fantastic vocal performance, especially on Firewind and Rain!
The album is teasingly dynamic in its moods, which is only natural, since it follows a concept. So the crew nailed their basic goal: convincingly making sense of the concept and bringing it to life through their own songwriting. The songs often flow through dizzying swings of mood in a sequence of motifs that stay remarkably fluid. The theatricality is outstanding. Both Finnish musicians, and Tolkki in particular as a seasoned veteran, add that proper power metal »tickle« to the record. The tireless thunder of the double bass drum pedals is the main engine behind most of the album’s rhythms! The songs are all on equal footing, with no dips in quality between them. The album plays from the first second to the last. Once you bury yourself in it, you mustn’t lose the red thread! So welcome to the real battle for Leningrad!
An album that breathes beautifully across ten stages! If you’re a fan of neo-classically sharpened metal, stuffed with the eroticism of symphonic bombast and the breathtaking solo escapades of guitar hero Tony MacAlpine, then this is an album you absolutely have to check out!
Line-up
Mark Boals – vocals
Tony MacAlpine – guitar
Vitalij Kuprij – keyboards
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Timo Tolkki – bass guitar
Jami Huovinen- drums
Production
Tony MacAlpine
Track list
1. Mother Russia
2. They’re Calling Your Name
3. Empire
4. Land Of Frozen Tears
5. Firewind
6. Where Angels Play
7. Battle Of Leningrad
8. No Way Out
9. Our World
10. Rain
