BONFIRE – Pearls (2016)
After the successful, chart-making release of past year album Glörious, Bavarian melodic hard rock legends BONFIRE are proving they still have a great future to come – in 2016, the band celebrates 30 years on stage. To celebrate, Bonfire is releasing tomorrow March 18th a double album entitled “Pearls“.
Always with founding member guitarist Hans Ziller carrying the band, Bonfire found with ex-Accept singer David Reece an excellent replacement for Claus Lessmann. Reece’s voice fits excellent to the band’s sound since it is rough and melodic in one.
So with this new line-up Ziller & Co. decided to do something special for the fans that hold faith with the band for those three decades. They took a list of Bonfire classics and made a two-CD release out of it.
The first disc is called “Rock Pearls” and contains, as the title promises, Bonfire’s most famous melodic hard rockers re-recorded 2016 showing how the band sounds today.
Most have been re-arranged in a completely new way, and I am happy to see some of my favorites like ‘Sweet Obsession’, ‘Under Blue Skies’ or ‘Diamonds In the Rough’ on the tracklist.
These songs rock hard with the classic Bonfire melody and a punchy 2016 feel.
The second CD of this release is entitled “Classic Pearls”.
Ziller and his gang took the effort to re-arrange those nine songs, still including electric instruments but basically driven by acoustic guitars (lots of them) and some orchestrations – real strings, violins, cellos, etc.
Highlights such as ‘Who’s Foolin’ Who’ and ‘You Make Me Feel’ got an new expression by becoming acoustic tunes which is a great reward for Bonfire fans.
“Pearls” is a collection of timeless, great Bonfire tunes reworked with an updated sound. This is not just a cash-in ‘greatest hits’ and makes sense to me since it marks, together with Glörious, a kind of a ‘grow green again’ for the band from Ingolstadt.
Production is vibrant, clean and very polished, with band recreating these classics full of fire 2016. Guitars bite, the drum sound is huge (terrific) and vocals soar. In many ways, reminds me House Of Lords best works.
Bonfire regained some stability and hopefully the combination Ziller / Reece will stay solid as now for some more years.
Highly Recommended.
CD 1: Rock Pearls
01. Strike Back
02. Under Blue Skies
03. Diamonds in the Rough
04. Proud of My Country
05. Sweet Home Alabama
06. Don’t Go Changing Me
07. Sweet Obsession
08. American Nights
09. Good Time Rock ‘n’ Roll
10. Heat in the Glow
11. Can’t Stop Rockin
12. Down to Atlanta
13. Loaded Gun
CD 2: Classic Pearls
01. You Make Me Feel
02. Give It a Try
03. Who’s Foolin’ Who
04. I Need You
05. Good Night Amanda
06. Southern Winds
07. If It Wasn’t for You
08. Why Is It Never Enough
09. Let’s Fly Away
Hans Ziller – Guitars, Backing Vocals
David Reece – Lead Vocals
Ronnie Parkes – Bass, Backing Vocals
Frank Pane – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Tim Breideband – Drums
The Italian Symphony Ensemble – Strings
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