Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: No Hot Ashes
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2018
Duration: 40:11
Rating: 4/5
Well, here’s yet another debut from a band that was active in the eighties and, with its vision, actually followed the trends of the day: west coast AOR, a sound that blew up big on British soil and across the old European continent too. We’re talking about the lost-and-found Northern Irish rockers NO Hot Ashes from Belfast.
It took a long time for the band, formed in the mid-eighties, to release its debut. The story goes like this. In 1988 they signed a deal with GWR Records, and in 1988 the original lineup was made up of: Dave Irvine (guitar), Paul Boyd (bass), Tommy Quinn (vocals), Tommy Dickson (keyboards) and Steve Strange (drums). When No Hot Ashes moved to London and started opening shows for bands like Mama’s Boys and Magnum, it looked like the band was on its way up, but things started getting complicated right when they wanted to put out their studio debut. One by one, the members started losing heart, and at the end of 1990 they declared that No Hot Ashes were no more.
The band reformed in 2013 to mark the anniversary of the local Belfast club Rosetta Bar with its one and only announced gig. But everything turned out differently, and with that show and the »dust« it kicked up, the band managed to get enough attention that the Italian label Frontiers Records noticed them. After 34 years of waiting, the self-titled studio debut by “No Hot Ashes” has finally made it into the world.
So, 40 minutes of music that’s a freshened-up reflection of days long gone, when AOR was in full bloom and bands like Journey , Survivor and Night Ranger were raking in giant piles of cash across the Atlantic pond. The version of the genre that took root on the British Isles was thriving too. Def Leppard quickly slid that way stylistically, of course, and FM were seriously attractive. In Canada, the genre’s boom was looked after by bands like Honeymoon Suite, Bulevard, Triumph (thoroughly adapted at the time) and Aldo Nova,…
The material on the album »No Hot Ashes« is truly a reflection of that rock’n’roll optimism of the eighties. Packed with a string of polished highlights. Fully fleshed-out compositions, with atmospheric peaks in attractive hooky choruses that grab your attention instantly with their melodic catchiness. The interplay between the building blocks of the sound is superb, the dialogue between keyboards and guitar is robust and dynamic, and the vocal harmonies are added in the manner of founding fathers Queen and Uriah Heep. The guitars are pushed slightly forward in the refreshed production, while the soundscape floats on blankets of eighties synths. A bit of everything, in other words. Authoritative, clean, highly melodic and catchy singing from the lead vocalist front and center, plus plenty of pomp and bombast. Freshened-up tracks that were tempered over three decades have finally ended up in the right place. It’s a strong-character album that was a long time in the making, and in terms of quality there’s hardly anything you could add or take away. Highly recommended listening for all you retro AOR nostalgics!
Lineup
Dave Irvine – guitar
Nial Diver – guitar
Paul Boyd – bass
Steve Strange – drums
Tommy Dickson – keyboards
Eamon Nancarrow – vocals
Production
No Hot Ashes
Tracklist
1. Come Alive
2. Good To Look Back
3. Satisfied
4. Boulders
5. I’m Back
6. Glow
7. Over Again
8. Jonny Redhead
9. Souls
10. Running Red Lights
