Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Bonfire
Label: LZ Records
Release: 2011
Running time: 59:37
Rating: 3/5
The new Bonfire album is a return to the band’s roots, and a release Bonfire badly needed right now. Their previous experiment, a concept album called “The Räuber” (2008), somehow never managed to leave the impression that it was actually Bonfire playing, so the memory of it fades fast. It’s a total miss in an otherwise solid discography.
“Fireworks” and “Point Blank” are classics, and back when the eighties turned into the nineties they made Bonfire something like Germany’s answer to Bon Jovi, in the days when this kind of music had the masses’ attention and was at the peak of its popularity. That long track record, with the band active (under various names) since 1972, and a pedigree of classic releases is exactly what helped them keep their heads above water through the years and get through even the toughest times in the music industry, when everybody turns their back on you and you have to grind your fingertips raw just to survive as a professional musician.
The very first track, Deadly Contradiction, is the album’s darkest composition, full of melancholy and, above all, a grabby chorus hook. It successfully focuses the listener’s attention and gets them to stick around for the rest of the record. Bonfire come closest to that atmosphere again later with Close To The Edge, which could easily have swapped places with Deadly Contradiction as the opener. Right after the opener comes one of the album’s best tracks, Just Follow The Rainbow, whose superbly structured melodic chorus could have been released as the regular hit single without a hitch. Looser’s Tale (later on the album) also gets more than comfortably close to hit-single material with its higher melodic catchiness and rock firepower. Bonfire feel safest at a mid-tempo pace. In those moments they deftly trade in building rich, moody backdrops that hit their atmospheric peaks exactly where they have to when we’re talking melodic hard rock. In the choruses. Even the excellent ballad Hold Me Now, parked at the very end of the album, doesn’t escape this. Do Or Die is the only track on the album that’s seriously sped up, and it’s where “Branded” delivers the most direct rock punch, immediacy and devilish energy. Save Me, with its excellent guitar riff, keeps the most direct link on the album between the new Bonfire and the classic ones.
There are a few stumbles. Better Days, with its clichéd rhythm, brings more predictability and, as a result, a bit less excitement. In general the album calms down in the middle because of the track order, since this one follows the album’s first ballad, Let It Grow. The band decided to add two classic songs to the album (Rivers Of Glory, I Need You), rearranged in acoustic dress and performed by the trio of Hans Ziller (guitar), Claus Lessmann (guitar, vocals) and Claus’s daughter Chiara on piano. Given how more than solid the new record already is expressively, this was by no means necessary, but it’s a welcome treat for all the die-hard Bonfire fans.
The album is seasoned throughout with excellent guitar soloing. Claus Lessmann doesn’t hide (especially in the more sophisticated parts of the album) that he’s lost some of his vocal power, but the choruses are once again masterfully dressed up with rich harmonies from layered vocals, which of course deepens the theatrical drama and the sheer bombast of the moods.
“Branded” is a solid record, though not a perfect or flawless one, as there’s still room to improve. It’s a step back toward the classic waters of the German school of melodic hard rock, where the guys have always been at their best. Let’s hope they stay here from now on, and that baffling experiments like “The Räuber” are history for good.
Line-up
Claus Lessmann – vocals, guitar
Hans Ziller – guitar
Chris Limburg – guitar
Uwe Köhler – bass
Dominik Huelshorst – drums, percussion
Production
Hans Ziiler & Claus Lessmann
Track list
1. Deadly Contradiction
2. Just Follow The Rainbow
3. Save Me
4. Let It Grow
5. Better Days
6. Do Or Die
7. Close To The Edge
8. Crazy
9. Loser’s Lane
10. Hold Me Now
11. I Need You (bonus track)
12. Rivers Of Glory (bonus track)
