Customer Reviews

Burning Earth

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Firewind's second album, a follow-up to last year's "Between Heaven and Hell". This album features the incredible Gus G on guitar and Stephen Frederick on vocals. However, Brian Harris does not play drums on this one, being replaced by Stian Kristoffersen. The songs seem even more in-your-face than the debut and even though Frederik Nordstrom produced both albums, the new album sounds even thicker and fuller than the debut (which I thought sounded great).

As for the songs, they are almost all up-tempo. There are no cover tunes (the first disc featured a Scorpions cover) and there's not much in the way of ballads, like with Gus G's. other band, Dream Evil. Highlight tracks include "Brother's Keeper" (great lyrics and songwriting dynamics), "The Longest Day" (anti-war anthem) and "Waiting Still". "The Fire and The Fury" features a rhythm part that would probably give most guitarists tendonitis if they attempted to play it.

Overall, this is a fantastic metal release. If you like your rock without the dreaded "cookie monster" vocals or rap (Stepehn sounds like a more intense Graham Bonnett) and if you dig talented musicians, this is a great purchase.

Firewind - Burning Earth

Band Website - www.firewind.gr

Label - Leviathan Records / www.leviathanrecords.com

Burning Earth is Firewind's second cd, I was a big fan of the first cd so I had high hopes that the second cd was equally as good or even better. There is a new rhythm section on this release, Out is Brian Harris (Drums) & Honstantine (Bass)...In is Stian Kristoffersen (Drums) from the band Pagan's Mind and Petros Christo (Bass) from the band Breaking Silence (one of my personal favorite bands). Back on vocals and doing another killer job is Stephen Fredrick (Kenziner) and of course on guitar the 23 year old axe slinger, phenom, man of many bands Gus G. (Dream Evil, Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage).

The First thing that you will notice about this cd is the awesome artwork, a lot of bands seem to forget about their album as being a complete package. Firewind hasn't and the cover and package fits perfectly with the albums title and theme "Burning Earth". There are 9 tracks on this offering and not a weak track to be heard. All are in the Power Metal vein with good energy and groove highlights for me are the tracks `Brother's Keeper', `Immortal Lives Young' & `The Longest Day'. Gus G. offers up tons of licks to keep all the guitarists out there happy and the Fredrick has you pounding your fist in the air to the anthems he is belting out.

This album to me may be my favorite Power Metal cd of 2003, it gives you everything that you want, and best of all it keeps you coming back for more, and it still hasn't left my cd changer!!!

9.0 / 10.0

Waysted from MetalNetRadio.com

Track Time: 44:45

Track Listing:

01 Steal Them Blind

02 I Am The Anger

03 Immortal Lives Young

04 Burning Earth

05 The Fire & The Fury

06 You Have Survived

07 Brother's Keeper

08 Waiting Still

09 The Longest Day

I'm more of a fan of the Apollo era of Firewind so if this was your first look into Firewind I would suggest Allegiance, The Premonition, or Days of Defiance instead. that being said, I think this is thebest album of the pre Apollo era. the vocalist Stephen Fredrick did a great job on this album. it's a great listen from beginning to end, and it gets the desired message home quite well. though again, I believe Firewind is best enjoyed if you listen to the newer work then go back to their roots.

The second Firewind album originally released in 2003. "Burning Earth" will by no means disappoint; yet it will fall short once compared with "Between Heaven And Hell". At the time band members were deeply involved in other projects that subsequently affected the end result. The line up is set to include Gus G. on lead guitar and Stephen Frederick on vocals as the songwriting core of the band. This album also features new acquisitions in bass player Petros Christo and drummer Stian Kristoffersen.
If you are about to make your first Firewind purchase we recommend that you choose their debut "Between Heaven And Hell" or their latest accomplishment "Allegiance".
Nevertheless if you decide to invest in this decent release you will be rewarded by first class power/ heavy tracks such as "Brother's keeper", "Waiting still", "I am the anger" and the instrumental "The fire and the fury".

I enjoy this band. I love the 80's hair bands and through the 90's I was lost until 2000 when Korn, and then some other bands started to bring Metal back! This is also one of those bands. Great lyrics and great music!

Here is another great hard rock band with great melodies and vocals. Firewind has a great sound with loud guitars and great vocal hooks with fun songs.

Burning Earth is an awesome power metal CD! I bought the CD for the track The Fire and The Fury. Very sweet!

Firewind appears to have gathers some great musical talent here. The vocalist is strong and the sound of the music is quite powerful. What you get here is heavy metal with a slight power metal feel to it. Not euro power metal but more in the vein of Malmsteen, Kenziner etc.

This is the only release I have from Firewind. It starts off with a great opening track STEAL THEM BLIND. The sound of the guitars roaring through your speakers gets you pumped and the vocals rip. The next song I AM THE ANGER is also very good and is the single from the album. It's a little repetitive but it is short, to the point and very catchy. The problem for this album is the song writing seems to have take a vacation after the first two or three tracks. Lyrically they start getting into some "do gooder" type messages in the lyrics. Even some environmental stuff. I have nothing against the environement but for some reason envoironementalist lyrics and heavy metal just don't seem to work well together. In fact, I don't think environmental messages work in songs in general. I'm not sure why, they just don't.

Anyway, like I said I love the sound and the musicians on hand here but the songwriting is just not consistant enough to keep my interest. The more mid tempo they go the worse they get. They need to stay really aggressive for a whole album. Then I would be like , WOW these guys kick butt!

For now, a good album but a very mixed bag. Tons of potential though. 2.5 of 5 stars in my book.

Firewind does it again. At first this album didn't kick me in the face like their previous one (between heaven and hell) but after repeated listens I will have to say this is superior to it. The song writing has really matured as well as the lyrics. But maturity doesn't mean they've softened up, this is one HEAVY and dark album. The only exception being "brothers keeper" which kicks so much [back]BECAUSE it's so different from the rest of the album. If you liked between heaven and hell or are just a fan of pure metal I strongly suggest this album.

A word of warning, some of you may not be prepared for the pure metal power of "the fire and the fury". If you have a weak heart I suggest you prepare yourself for this one, it might end up killing you!!!

When I first heard Between Heaven & Hell I was blown away. Here was an album worth listening to again, and again, and again. I got to the end of the first song and said, this is awesome! And I just HAD to listen to that song over again.

I thought the same would happen for burning earth. I was wrong.

It's a good album, but nothing really blew me away. There was only one song, #5, where I thought after, that I wanted to relisten to it again right away.

However, on Heaven & Hell, I had that feeling, that desire, on songs 1,2,3,5,6,7,9,10,11 & 12. (4 and 8 I thought were basically the same song...) It took me days just to get through the entire cd just because I kept replaying the same songs over and over again. They were THAT damn good.

Heaven & Hell songs had awesome hooks. The rhythms just infect you and before you know it, you're foot is tapping, your head is nodding...

Only one time, during the first minute of song #5, I got that silly grin on my face, my head started nodding, I sat forward in my chair, here it was I thought! FINALLY! After 4 so-so songs, a song that had my attention. But that was pretty much it. Just like "Oceans" on Between Heavan & Hell, song #5 on Burning earth was just way too short, almost an incomplete idea. It's like they were playing, and somebody just started the fade out even though the song wasn't done. Maybe it was an accident, I don't know. The second (and only other) instrumental song on Between Heaven & Hell wasn't like that at all! A complete song.

So, bottom line, if you're a fan of this genre, you'll enjoy Burning wind. It's good for a spin here and there. But I'd say I was pretty disapointed compared to Heaven & Hell.

When I got Heaven & Hell, I thought to myself, from this point forward, FIREWIND is my new favorite band. Heaven & Hell remains, and will remain, one of my favorite all time cd's, but as far as FIREWIND is concerned, they're no longer at the top of my list. The last band that fell off the top of my list was on their 10th album before they crapped out, so, this is like a world record for the rise and fall, in my humble opinion...