BURNING POINT
Power metal’s a weird genre. When it’s done well, it’s a beautiful thing but when it’s done badly, it’s a train wreck. A technical train wreck, but a train wreck all the same. One thing’s for certain though, if you’re looking for a bit of cheese that still has a bit of credibility then it’s probably a good place to start. That’s where Burning Point come in with their “fire” concept album (OK, I made that up probably. But Burning Point’s ‘The Ignitor’, with songs like ‘Eternal Flame’ and ‘In the Fires of Myself – My Hell’, they’ve missed a trick there).
‘The Ignitor’ falls into a lesser known but well established section of power metal, namely the bit that covers bands that are excellent technically and are probably great live but that you find hard work to listen to all the time (Hi, DragonForce). They’re not quite in the extreme of that category, mainly because they don’t fill every available second of album time with some completely ridiculous and technical guitar part. They’re more concerned with actually having a song than showing how quickly they can play and it makes for a much better album.
The album gets off to a good start but does start to lose a bit of momentum by the half-way point. It’s not that the songs are any worse, it’s just that there’s not enough variety as a whole to keep it as interesting. It might be something for die hard power metal fans but as someone who only dips in and out of the genre except for a few beloved bands it just seems like an unnecessary addition to my collection. It would fall into the “I like it” category but that’d be about it. To conclude, it’s nothing less than you’d expect from the genre really: it’s completely over the top and deliciously cheesy at times. And the singer sound a bit like fat Axl Rose.
‘The Ignitor’ falls into a lesser known but well established section of power metal, namely the bit that covers bands that are excellent technically and are probably great live but that you find hard work to listen to all the time (Hi, DragonForce). They’re not quite in the extreme of that category, mainly because they don’t fill every available second of album time with some completely ridiculous and technical guitar part. They’re more concerned with actually having a song than showing how quickly they can play and it makes for a much better album.
The album gets off to a good start but does start to lose a bit of momentum by the half-way point. It’s not that the songs are any worse, it’s just that there’s not enough variety as a whole to keep it as interesting. It might be something for die hard power metal fans but as someone who only dips in and out of the genre except for a few beloved bands it just seems like an unnecessary addition to my collection. It would fall into the “I like it” category but that’d be about it. To conclude, it’s nothing less than you’d expect from the genre really: it’s completely over the top and deliciously cheesy at times. And the singer sound a bit like fat Axl Rose.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Scarlet Records
Album
THE IGNITOR
Review by Siân Williams
RUNNING TIME:
-
RELEASE DATE:
19th June 2012
TRACK LISTING
1) Eternal Flame
2) In the Fires of Myself - Made Hell
3) In the Night
4) The Ignitor
5) Silent Scream
6) Heaven is Hell
7) Losing Sleep
8) Demon Inside You
9) Everdream
10) Lost Tribe
11) Holier Than Thou
2) In the Fires of Myself - Made Hell
3) In the Night
4) The Ignitor
5) Silent Scream
6) Heaven is Hell
7) Losing Sleep
8) Demon Inside You
9) Everdream
10) Lost Tribe
11) Holier Than Thou
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Finland
"...completely over the top and deliciously cheesy at times."
