FIRSTBOURNE – Riot (2016)
Appeared at the end of 2016, “Riot” is the full length debut of FIRSTBOURNE, a female fronted five-piece arena rock band from Boston. The group has been gaining a strong following in the East area, especially from those headbangers missing an era when American heavy rock was about melody and driven riffs.
FirstBourne even has recently toured in China, and “Riot” will be released there as well.
Formed by Berklee-trained, skilled musicians, FirstBourne was put together by guitarist Mike Kerr, vocalist Adrienne Cowan and bassist Ven Thangaraj (of Indian origins), recording some singles mostly for promotion.
The trio soon teamed up with Sony Brazil’s producer / guitarist Jimmy Olivera to work on this full length, “Riot”. Drummer Chris Dovas joined shortly after, rounding up a tight unit.
All members draw influences from the ’80s / early ’90s where musicianship, appearance and good songwriting took center stage. While rock and metal today has a wide set of genres and sub-genres, FirstBourne writes music to appeal to a broad range of listeners.
As such, songs are created with simple, understandable structures, singable melodies, meaningful lyrics and catchy hooks.
Essentially, FirstBourne’s “Riot” sounds like a mix of DIO, Yngwie / Soto era, Lee Aaron, some Queensryche, etc. What I liked here is that the songs are not overdone, overproduced and do not force an onslaught of notes at breakneck tempo on the listener.
You have lots of solos, but at service of the song. The drums are powerful, yet giving room to the other instruments to shine. Adrienne’s vocals are in the traditional side of the genre, very clean.
There’s varied styles in “Riot”, from classy melodic metal in ‘Home’ adorned with keys in the background, to more straight hard rock in ‘Control’. The band add a progressive touch on ‘Symphony of Subconscious’ and ‘Pick up the Torch’, while ‘When Morning Breaks’ is a very classy metal ballad plenty of atmospheres.
The quite catchy title track ‘Riot’ is one of my favorites here, then ‘Firstborne Heart’ is all about groove with great verses supported by a cool synth arrangement.
FirstBourne is without a doubt a rare outfit in the current US metal scene as they don’t follow any modernism of trend in “Riot”, but classy, traditional US melodic metal from the ’80s.
On this record the band has obtained their own sound – traditional for the genre but updated – the material is strong, and all are very competent musicians.
A very nice slice of classic stuff.
01 – Home
02 – Control
03 – Symphony of Subconscious
04 – When Morning Breaks
05 – Riot
06 – Pick up the Torch
07 – Firstborne Heart
08 – Pretend
Adrienne Cowan – Vocals, Keyboards
Mike Kerr – Lead Guitar
Ven Thangaraj – Bass
Jim Oliveira – Guitar
Chris Dovas – Drums
BUY IT !
shop.firstbourneband.com/products/riot-physical-cd
.
