Fireforce – Annihilate The Evil

One of the zillion reasons I love writing reviews for Metal Addicts is that I was able to notice how Metal bands have envolved through the years, and how creative and diverse the scene has become.  To receive a bunch of the most fresh band efforts makes a lot of difference in your life as a fan, and as a listener. Some of the prejudice you had just fades away. And that’s really awesome. I can’t picture a reviewer full of prejudice and preestablished concepts. I had mine I must confess, but they’re all completely gone.

I was wondering about power metal before writing this review to FireForce “Annihilate The Evil.” I always try to figure and set up some characteristics that make the band in question stand out from the others. We, heavy metallers, must agree that power metal has been through these more than twenty years one of Metal’s genres that is most easily put in a box. I mean, power metal clichés, I chose this word on purpose, are most evidenced, and I dare to say, held to a very high level of boringness. When I receive a power metal band to review (Between you and me, I’ve been avoiding some) I expect to hear high pitched vocals, shredding guitars, double bass drums, fast paced songs, lyrics about the fantastic, and very emotional singing. Have I forgotten anything?

For our sakes, FireForce with “Annihilate The Evil” are quite the opposite. FireForce are power and metal. Of course, one may find some legitimate, and the good ones, characteristics of power metal in them. But as I said before, Fireforce could manage wisely to stand out. How did FireForce do that? Simply looking back to the first power metals and bringing back the healthy proposals power metal bands had before, that is, maintain the aggressivity and heaviness of Metal music without making any concessions to sweetness or commercialism. FireForce are so strongly bounded to the past that they paid a tribute to a band that has been long forgotten by most metalheads, and to whom we should pay tons of respect due to their history with heavy music: The Rolling Stones. Fireforce’s cover to “Gimme Shelter” is superb. It’s a brend new song, but still reminds the original. I can remember only Keel covering “Let’s Spend The Night Together.”

FireForce with “Annihilate The Evil” catch was to have a singer that doesn’t abuse of the so common high pitched voice. Filip “Flype” Lemmens’s voice brings a lot of early Metal singers elements as some rawness, but it does not mean an unexperienced or out of tune voice. His voice just took FireForce to a new level, very far from the mass average. It’s strong and solid. Musically speaking, FireForce belong to the German school of power metal bands, which means that they mostly bult up their songs chordly riff oriented. That gives more power to the songs, as we can see in “Fake Heroes” with its strong and remarkable chorus. Although, some songs may be guitar phrases priented as “Oxi Day,” which gives an expected cadence to “Annihilate The Evil., and I’d say a bit more saxonish atmosphere. In a nutsheel, songs in “Annihilate The Evil” are diverse, FireForce use a myriad of techniques to build up their songs, and that’s what makes a band with approuch.

So if you want to listen to some nonaffected power metal, FireForce’s “Annihilate The Evil” is the answer.

Track Listing:

  1. The Boys From Down Under
  2. Revenge In Flames
  3. Fake Hero
  4. Dog Soldiers
  5. Oxi Day
  6. Thyra’s Wall
  7. Defector
  8. The Iron Brigade
  9. White Lily (Okhotnik)
  10. Iron, Steel, Concrete, Granite
  11. Herkus Mantas
  12. Gimme Shelter (CD only Bonustrack)

FireForce’s “Annihilate The Evil” will annihilate all evil on September 1st via Limb Music.

Watch the official video to “The Boys From Down Under” here: