FIRE ROSE – Blood On Your Hands (2023)
A long time passed since the last FIRE ROSE album ‘Devil on High Heels’ (2016) and in those seven years many things happened. And it’s very nice to see that the Swiss band made it through these difficult times: they lost their bassist and friend Adi and had a few line up changes – still they believed in their music and kept on going.
On their new CD “Blood On Your Hands” the guys are on the right way delivering crunchy hard rock pley of melody – their singer’s Philipp Meier voice is just fitting perfectly to the songs created by guitarist Simon Giese, his brother Florian, bassist Janick Schaffner and the new member, drummer Simon Sutter.
The guys created a record that surprises for its quality: compared to the album from 7 years ago, they made a huge musical step forward and have developed their style. FIRE ROSE have always written catchy choruses to immediately sing along, but now this is ear candy quality over and over, with elements akin Gotthard, Jaded Heart, Treat, etc. In fact, the band will be touring with Jaded Heart soon.
You can hear certain inspirations by the big Hard Rock / Heavy Bands from the ’80s, but not like copies. We like the melodies, the riffs, the harmony between vocals, melody and the music. Really well done.
Singer Philipp shows his highest tones and offers nice diversity to the songs.
“Heroes” is not a David Bowie cover, but the unholy bastard son of Uriah Heep and Iron Maiden. Nevertheless, it is a typical Fire Rose song with additional keys. A powerful hymn. Next a strong double lead guitar feature and a very rough and tough riff combined with cutting vocals make “Touchdown” aggressive and melodic at the same time for every sport arena.
Title track ”Blood on Your Hands” is about the ancient Roman Empire, slavery, the wars of the last century and leaders with poisoned minds. They all have innocent blood on their hands. Although it has a short keyboard introduction and interlude, the song rocks. The color of Philipp’s vocals underlines this thought. Although it is a very catchy song, there is no glorification in it at all. Listen and think about it, especially nowadays.
I listen to “Leave your Cage” and think, this is my favorite because of the melody, and then “Get it All” follows – how am I supposed to choose my fav? A fast uptempo song with great beat and really cool guitar solo.
“Rain Falling Down” is a nicely arranged ballad on the album, goosebumps guaranteed. Followed by “Fly to the Rainbow”, “Life” and then “Fields of Honor”, there couldn’t have been a better final to this record.
So what you get with “Blood on you Hands” is high quality Swiss Hard Rock at its best. Well done and my highest respect to the guys of Fire Rose for this great work. Well worth th 7-year wait.
Highly Recommended
01 – Heroes
02 – Touchdown
03 – Blood on Your Hands
04 – Rise Like the Sun
05 – Leave Your Cage
06 – Get It All
07 – Rain Falling Down
08 – Fly to the Rainbow
09 – Life
10 – Fields of Honor
Philipp Meier (lead and backing vocals)
Simon Giese (guitar, backing vocals)
Florian Giese (guitar, backing vocals)
Janick Schaffner (bass, backing vocals)
Simon Sutter (drums)
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