Artist: Burning Point
Label: Metal Heaven
Released: 2009
Length: 46:01
Rating: 4/5
Burning Point are Finnish power metallers, but unlike many of the bands that popped up in Finland in the nineties playing power metal, they don’t sound so Finnish, they sound German! “Empyre” is their fourth album in ten years of existence, which works out to an average of two and a half albums a year! That’s not a real measure of creative drive, since the band has constantly struggled to hold a stable line-up together. It was only signing with Metal Heaven Records in 2005 that finally laid a solid foundation on which the band started building anew. The third album “Burned Down the Enemy” (2007) showed a clear step up to a higher level of expression, especially because it offered some seriously seductive melodic arrangements inside compact metal anthems, which put the band’s big potential on the map.
In 2008 the Burning Point line-up got shaken up once again, as Jari Kaiponen left the band and the drum seat was taken by their keyboardist until then, Jussi Ontero. What a wild reshuffle! The keyboard spot that opened up was filled by an old acquaintance of the band, Pasi Hiltula (ex-Kalmah, ex-Eternal Tears of Sorrow), who had guested on the first two albums. He eventually became a permanent member. None of this threw the band off focus. What’s more, it helped them close ranks and bite even harder! With fresh arrangements, the new album “Empyre” delivers a further upgrade of their musical expression, dedicated to creating highly melodic Euro power metal.
Burning Point showed up on the scene when the first wave of the “revival”, brought by bands like (right time, right place) Hammerfall, Primal Fear or Nocturnal Rites, had already passed. They slightly missed the train, so the first records took plenty of flak for being just one more cliché among many. Not exactly a welcome send-off, but through hard graft and sheer persistence the guys proved with “Empyre” that this label can be decisively shaken off.
The songs boast excellent arrangements with an innate knack for placing polished melodies, strung together in the choruses with a seductively bombastic, catches-on-first-listen effect. The band delivered a self-produced sound that, interestingly, is completely German! The riffing is vividly resurrected, raw, especially the fourth track Face the Truth, which, amid material mostly driven by a mid-tempo groove, is one of the most aggressive songs on the record, and with that production it comes close, with its extremely aggressive stance of an attacking, exposed riff and the aggression of its atmosphere, to classic Primal Fear. Whoa? Pretty bold claim, right? Starting to get an idea what the whole thing might resemble after all these analytical sums? Raw German attitude in the sound plus an outstanding sense of compactness and melody? The Danes Dream Evil are probably the most fitting reference here.
The weak spot of Burning Point is, as always, the vocals of Pete Ahonen, who is first and foremost an excellent guitarist, and only then a singer. This time the guys took care, especially in the choruses, to combine the basic, mostly mid-range vocal lines with high ones. That killed two birds with one stone. First, the harmonization filled out the final picture of the band’s spectral sound even more effectively, and second, it cunningly “hid” the weak spots of Pete’s voice, which now and then could use a bit more breath, expressive power and authority over the instruments backing him. Still, the guy showed visible progress in this department on the fourth album, and finally shook off the unfortunate accent that marked his singing on the debut.
It all works convincingly because it’s rescued by an exceptional production, the kind other bands could kill for out of envy. That production lifts the riffs and basic motifs out of “cliché” territory and up a rank, since it’s precisely the sound that effortlessly enchants the listener right away and talks them out of “heard it before” comparisons. So this is a very good heavy metal album! A massive wall of riffs with a curtain of keyboards in the background co-creating the dramatic mood, the crystal-clear, separated cannon charm of the drums with a mild metallic ring, and the melodic, clearly audible rattle of the bass line are bound to one another in a way that creates remarkable sonic depth and a high, rolling dynamic, this sound breathing with full lungs.
With their melodically invasive stance, Burning Point will quickly win over the true power metal fan, since the convincingly shaped anthemic chants inside the choruses of “Empyre”, Fool’s Paradise, Cruel World, Blinded By Darkness or the closing Only Wrong Will Survive are moments that mark mature atmospheric peaks. “Empyre” is a new step up for Burning Point. It’s an album with a clear vision of musical expression, with the picture of the band’s final inner consolidation shining through it, and as such it cements the band’s position on the metal scene and confirms that with stubbornness, faith and relentlessness you can reach any goal you set!
Let me also mention that there’s an interesting limited edition of “Empyre”, which contains six impressive bonus tracks. Two are the band’s own material, while the rest are covers of Running Wild (Gods Of Iron), Q5 (Let Go),The Rods (Nuclear Skies) and Kirka (I’ll Be Yours).
Line-up
Pete Ahonen – vocals, guitar
Pasi Hiltula – kkeyboards
Pekka Kolivuori – guitar
Jukka Jokikokko – bass guitar
Jussi Ontero – drums
Production
Burning Point
Track list
01. Intro (The Godfather Theme) (01:21)
02. Empyre (04:59)
03. Manic Merry-Go-Round (04:40)
04. Face The Truth 03:35)
05. Fools Parade 04:46)
06. Was It Me 04:27)
07. Walls Of Stone 04:23)
08. Sacrifice (03:53)
09. Cruel World (04:47)
10. Blinded By The Darkness (04:23)
11. Only The Wrong Will Survive (04:48)
