Legendary UK Melodic Rock band,
Burn, best known for their 1993 release '
So Far, So Bad' (5Ks from Dave Reynolds in Kerrang), not forgetting '
Spark To A Flame' (1995), have at long last returned with a new album, '
Global Warning'.
As a consequence of tragic circumstances and life's natural events, only the core of the original
Burn now remains - vocalist Jeff Ogden, bass player Marc Stackhouse and keyboard playing/ album producing brother, Barney Stackhouse.
Subsequently, Julian Nicholas and Phil (Alien) Hammond were recruited to play guitar, and Benjy (Ted Nugent/Praying Mantis) Reid to play drums.
As a result, there's clearly a depth of experience and talent in present day
Burn, but given that '
So Far, So Bad' lit up 1993 like a solar flare, '
Global Warning' has a hard act to follow.
In addition, the melodic rock landscape has markedly changed this last 12 years. Back in the mid nineties
Burn were manfully fighting a losing battle against the incoming tide of grunge and the corporate rock backlash.
Now, more than a decade later, melodic rock thrives as an underground music scene. Dozens of truly outstanding melodic rock albums have been released in the intervening years, and you've got to be really good to standout.
It's against that background that '
Global Warning' will be judged, rather than the band's illustrious past.
For four tracks this new release outshines anything I've heard this year in the genre.
The songs are robust, carefully crafted. The production is energetic, inventive and sonically huge.
'Shadow Of The Satellites' and '
Dangerous Times' address the profound social changes happening this side of the millennium, and are acutely observed. Ogden's powerful voice adds a bluesy tinge, giving the songs the weight and the gravitas the subject matter demands.
As standalone melodic rock songs
, 'Forgive Me' and '
Down In Flames' have it all. Drive, urgency, towering choruses and magnificently melodic axe soloing.
The remaining seven tracks are merely outstanding.
On '
Meltdown' Ogden joins
Jorn Lande as one of Europe's leading vocalists (and shares Lande's occasional Coverdale mannerisms). That said, lead axeman Julian Nichols steals this song from under everyone's nose with several measured blasts of engagingly melodic soloing.
'Made That Way' continues in the same vein, while the riffy '
In Another Lifetime' punches like a heavyweight.
There are no fillers here and little variation in the witheringly high standard of songwriting, performance and production.
No question,
Burn are back, and with '
Global Warning' they've given us a clear candidate for album of the year.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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