Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Ken Hensley & Live Fire
Label: Ear Music Records
Release: 2011
Running time: 60:30
Rating: 4.5/5
There’s no need to waste words on Ken Hensley. The great musical »Gandalf« and creator of the biggest Uriah Heep hits, the ones that carved this in many ways pioneering band into the history of immortal rock ‘n’ roll acts in golden letters back in the early seventies, wanted to build a hard rock band modeled exactly on the old days, when rock ‘n’ roll was still young and innocent and in full bloom thanks to the trailblazing of geniuses like Ken Hensley! If Glenn Hughes had the members of Swedish rockers Europe backing him in the nineties, Ken Hensley can just as well hop over to Norwegian musicians for that kind of help. The Scandinavian feel for melodic perfection is dependable, like the fine mechanics of a Swiss watch. It can’t hide it and doesn’t even try. And so Ken Hensley created the band Live Fire.
Live Fire’s debut »Faster« is basically everything that embodies Ken Hensley’s creative character as a musical artist. That’s why this is an album that unmistakably draws musical parallels with the work of early Uriah Heep. If the late David Byron weren’t irreplaceable, you could easily argue that Live Fire sound more like the old Uriah Heep than the real Uriah Heep today sound like their seventies glory days. Or ever did, after the reactivation in 1982. »Faster« is simply a first-rate demonstration of how powerful a creative figure Ken Hensley is. Once you lose a figure like that, the band’s specific magic and essence walk out the door with them. Given the pronounced retro sound and the songwriting style that so enticingly brings Live Fire close to the golden days of Uriah Heep, you could even hint that without Ken Hensley there’s no real Uriah Heep. Without Hensley and? David Byron, of course. It reads like a provocation, but it’s simply true. The songwriting style on »Faster« is closer to seventies Uriah Heep than the songwriting of the actual Uriah Heep in the new millennium, even though their last two albums went back to an organic sound and the closest sensible parallels with the era of the old seventies days.
And the album »Faster«? The song Set Me Free (From Yesterday) is the distant, much, much younger brother of the Uriah Heep classic Rainbow Demon (»Demons And Wizards«, 1972), especially when you listen to the full-bodied meatiness of the opening passage, where the guitar blossoms into soloing acrobatics, backed by Hensley’s rocky Hammond »swipes«. The signature rhythmic Heep gallop is picked up by the next one, The Curse, no less excellent. It’s one of the most varied songs on the album, with an almost progressive development toward the end. The Curse is certainly one of the early peaks of »Faster«. This excellent song carries an extremely dramatic arc. It strikes the right balance between melancholy and solemn exaltation. Next comes the bluesy ballad I Cry Alone, which echoes the character of Hensley’s songwriting from the days when John Lawton, the famous vocalist, was in Uriah Heep. Brilliant. Three tracks in a row, one after another, of an exceptional adventure in evoking the legendary sounds of the seventies legacy.
A special twist comes with the album’s fourth track, Katrine. It’s an epic of possible associations with the Rainbow riff of Man On A Sliver Mountain, backed by a somewhat more restrained tempo on one side and, on the other, by »Deep Purple-isms« that are deepened especially by the vocal stamp, charmingly close to Ian Gillan’s approach. The title track sounds more modern, closer to the traits of melodic hard rock. This time the typical ballad from the genius of Ken Hensley is called Slippin’ Away, and it effectively eases the voltage of the album’s first half. That temporary softness is soon wildly replaced by yet another track written along similar lines to the title track. The End Of Never. It’s incredible how, with all its compactness and the definition of its building blocks, the album «Faster« keeps a remarkably strong red thread of lively, dynamic development running throughout. So the album is marked by a set of polished tracks. It’s an album tailor-made for fans of Ken Hensley’s traditional songwriting, and it will win quite a few hearts among fans of the »Byron & Lawton era« of Uriah Heep too.
The track that deserves special mention is Beyond the Starz. It’s the most accomplished composition, one that in some other, brighter times the airwaves would have fallen for instantly, and which could today be considered a big rock evergreen A song with a touch of AOR seductiveness! It masterfully builds into an atmospheric chorus crescendo. It’s incredible to realize how much the lead motif of this song resembles the lead motif of Joe Satriani’s Flying In A Blue Dream. We can talk about a fine AOR contour inside the chorus in the melodious Somwhere (In Paradise) too. The regular part of the album closes with the rock-powerful Fill Your Head With (Rock). The most predictable song on the album, with the most worn-out lyrics.
For all the Uriah Heep diehards, there’s one more bonus track at the end. A live performance of the Uriah Heep classic Circle Of Hands, played with the accompaniment of the Norwegian radio orchestra. A great collision of the orchestral and the rock, something Hensley already tried once when playing the famous suite Salisbury live. The woodwind section is the element that brings something special to this updated version of the »Demons And Wizards« classic! Hensley was famed as a brilliant singer throughout his career. In his later years he feels and knows that his voice is no longer what it used to be. That’s why he always lets another lead vocalist take the front. Still, he sang the lead vocal on the song (At) The Last Minute.
In short? If you love the old Uriah Heep and Ken Hensley’s classic solo studio work, you have to check this one out. You won’t regret a minute you put into it. Hensley has gathered some excellent musicians around him, seasoned pros at stirring up the most genuine feelings of nostalgia for rock’s golden age. At the same time, it’s also clear that Ken Hesnley hasn’t lost one iota of his brilliance when it comes to his exceptional songwriting genius. The inspiration is still there. The magic is still there, and Ken Hensley, along with it, is once again rejuvenated and »evergreen«!
Lineup
Ken Hensley – vocals, backing vocals, Hammond organ, Mini-Moog, keyboards, guitar
LIVE FIRE:
Eirikur Kauksson – vocals, backing vocals
Ken Ingwersen – Guitars & backing vocals
Sid Ringsby – bass guitar & backing vocals
Tom Arne Fossheim – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Iluta Valtere-Grauda – backing vocals
Kristine Tkacuka – backing vocals
Leva Katkovska – backing vocals
Production
Ken Hensley
Track list
1. Set Me Free (From Yesterday) (06.41)
2. The Curse (06.19)
3. I Cry Alone (05.16)
4. Katrine (04.29)
5. Faster (03.08)
6. Slippin’ Away (The Lovers Curse) (03.54)
7. The End Of Never (03.24)
8. Beyond The Starz (06.56)
9. (At) The Last Minute (03.07)
10. Somewhere (In Paradise) (03.41)
11. Fill Your Head (With Rock) (05.35)
12. Circle Of Hands (With The Norwegian Radio Orchestra) * (07.35)
*…bonus track
