Fireball Ministry - Fireball Ministry
Restricted Release
Stoner/Hard Rock
10 songs (40:33)
Release year: 2010
Fireball Ministry, Restricted Release
Reviewed by Khelek

Fireball Ministry is one of those bands that I find fun to listen to but never really took all that seriously. Of the many songs I've heard by them, not a whole lot have really stuck. This album is not much different from what the band has done in the past, and while it is another great collection of fist-pumping hard rock anthems, it's not going to deviate from the standard Fireball Ministry formula. That being said I still got plenty of enjoyment from listening to this release.

Hard Lines kicks the album off with Fireball Ministry's usual catchy opening guitar riffs and goes into a very typical song that really could have been on any previous album by this band. Fallen Believers start with some southern-style acoustic guitar work and the vocals come in after a little while, followed by melodic riffs and some slow slide guitar. This ended up being one of the most memorable songs from the album for me. It's once again very simple, but it has that familiarity and catchiness about it that just makes it fun to listen to and makes you want to sing along. Thought It Out continues with the same type of catchy lead riff with even more melody. The song is a bit poppy and cliché, but once again very memorable to me. This style definitely reminds me of newer Volbeat in some ways with the catchiness of the music and the melodic vocals of James Rota taking the center stage. I think he uses his range a bit more in this release than on previous albums, and anyone who has heard these guys knows that Rota has a powerful voice that works well in this genre. Butcher, Faker, Policy Maker definitely sounds like a song I've heard many times, although that is what makes this album enjoyable – familiarity with the music. Sleeping With Angels has a smooth, melancholy feeling that is simply too infectious to ignore. It is once again a bit on the cliché side, and I am sure many will hate this style of song on a metal album, but fortunately that makes it no less enjoyable to me.

The songs are mostly of the repetitive, mid-tempo variety that this band is known for with the guitars sounding warm and catchy. There are some memorable riffs here, but not as many as you might think on first listen. Every song incorporates melody in some way, although many times it just sounds too overdone and repetitive to really grab me. I think fans of Fireball Ministry will be happy with this release because it keeps with the things that these guys have been and always will be good at: writing catchy guitar riffs and using Rota's melodic vocals to their biggest advantage. And for those who haven't heard this band's material I would definitely suggest this album as it defines what the band is good at, and honestly any album you pick up by these guys is going to have much the same sound and style of songwriting. These guys do what they do and they do it well. This album did start to get a bit poppier than their previous work I think, but I personally didn't have a problem with it. At the end of the day it's a fun album to listen to and there are a handful of songs I just can't stop listening to.

Killing Songs :
Fallen Believers, Thought It Out, Sleeping With Angels
Khelek quoted 75 / 100
Other albums by Fireball Ministry that we have reviewed:
Fireball Ministry - The Second Great Awakening reviewed by Khelek and quoted 73 / 100
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