Bonfire - Roots Review

Bonfire are an habitué of Metal Addicts. We’ve reviewed two albums of them: 2018’s “Legends” and 2020’s “Fistful of Fire.” One more band that I had the pleasure of running into here at Metal Addicts. Amazing job this one, if you ask me.

In “Roots” the band follow the same path as in “Legends.” I mean, more or less. While in “Legends” the target were covers of many bands with no boundaries, “Roots” is open to “almost unplugged” ballads of all sorts. The most insteresting thing of the album is that the band fills the tracks with lots of references to very known songs. Here and there the fan will listen to licks or riffs of famous songs from classic rock bands. I suggest the fan to go on all tracks counting the references, it’s a good thing to do with “Roots” since not all of them have those references. Ah, I forgot to tell you the most important thing about “Roots” that is the fact that it’s a double CD with 24 tracks including classics as “When An Old Man Cries,” “You Make Me Feel,” “Ready 4 Reaction,” “American Nights” and the iconic “The Devil Made Me Do It.” There are clear references – I guess it’s better to say homages – to Led Zeppelin and even the guitar god Eric Clapton. Deep Purple are a band that receives lots of references as well via keyboarding tone as in “Starin’ Eyes.”

“Roots” isn’t the album for the fan that is for some striking and heavier stuff. It’s a sweet and gentle collection of songs that won a neat instrumental versions full of acostic guitars, keyboards and pianos embellished by the warm voice of vocalist Alexx Stahl. Only the track “Wolfmen” has hard packing delivering Bonfire’s stapler in the grand finale with some wolf’s growls – well, the track is called wolfmen, isn’t it? Bonfire here show how tight and cohesive their musicians are. Moreover, there are five new tracks that have been created while a crowdfunding campaign as remittance works for fans as these Covid times showed to be extremely harsh on musicians. With “Roots” Bonfire started a campaign to raise fonds to pocket some money as times are really hard. It’s possible to support the band purchasing various merch items, living-room concerts, VIP Tickets for their streaming release show and special rarities like original master tapes or guitar amps. And the new album “Roots” can be ordered here: https://www.startnext.com/bonfire-back-to-the-roots.

Bonfire “Roots” will be released on February 22nd via AFM Records.

Track Listing:

CD1