Band:
Erwin Suetens - Guitars
Flype - Vocals
Metalpat - Bass
Steve Deleu - Guitars
Tom Heijnen - Drums
Diskography:
Moonlight Lady EP (2009)
Info
Constantine - Guest Guitar Solos
Produced by R.D. Liapakis
Mixed and mastered by C. Schmid and R.D. Liapakis
Artwork by Eric Philippe
Released 25/3-2011
Reviewed 9/3-2011
Links:
fireforce.be
myspace
7hard
massacre
FireForce hail from Belgium, not a nation usually that known for their great war efforts or heroes, at least not outside Belgium. They do belong to the rougher side of the power metal subgenre which means that they are heavier and not as polished as the more common breed of bands in the genre. Moreover they do not have this high pitched vocal work as is very common in the genre. The production is not as polished as is common in the genre, it is a bit more raw which help the band actually conveying the sense of the war rather than just singing about it like Sabaton does with their very polished production.
In the opening track Coastal Battery for instance does this production help in conveying the sense of almost being there in that battle, the taste of burning gunpowder and salt water is there in your mouth and you can discern the enemy ships in the smoke and fire, they are firing towards you forcing you to duck beneath some rubble from a half disintegrated structure. Yeah and so on and so forth. There are other tracks that are good as well, like track three Firestorm which is a classical metal song that is well made and well executed, Fly Arrow Fly is another one of those tracks, now you are back in time when the fighting was made with bow and arrow, watch out for those longbows, they might be dangerous at times. The track called Mona Lisa is good but with ridiculous lyrics, another good one is the track called Born to Play Metal, I guess the band see themselves as born to play metal and maybe they are. They may not be showing it too well on this album since there is stuff that does feel a bit so-so and not particularly interesting to be honest. It is almost like they are fillers which of course is not necessary as this album is over 50 minutes long as it is.
I do believe that this band has missed throwing away enough material, they seem to have kept all they thought was decent without thinking in terms of how long the album will be and symmetry and everything. I think they should have axed away three more tracks and I could help them if they would want any help, track two, seven and ten can easily be dumped from this album without any harm. I guess the band has not heard the term less is more which is well applicable in most cultural things. I would however defer from using it when negotiation for salary.
So had the band been a bit more restrictive about what they left on the album, this would have been a great album, now to make it better I have to deselect songs to play and then be happier than if I play the album in full. Still this is a debut with the right building blocks for an interesting future, they have found a suitable sound, they do show that they are capable of good power metal songs, they just need to learn to narrow it down even more and keep the music more intensive throughout the albums than what it becomes with too much music. I think that looking at how the bands did when the vinyl record was the format would be a good thing as the amount of music a vinyl album can hold is just right because it is so easy to get bored when the music goes on beyond 40-45 minutes.
I am still positive towards this album though, it has some really good songs and sometimes it pulls you in even, but the lyrical themes along with the record being on the longer side makes me a bit more negative than I should have been had the band known to throw away more music.
I think this is a really good album that would have been so much better had the song writer been pierced by an arrow before writing the final three songs which incidentally were the ones I did not need.
HHHHHHH
