Heart Full Of Fire

Finland's Brother Firetribe keeps the parties hot and rocking with their second release, Heart Full Of Fire. The production has gotten meatier since False Metal, which is only a good thing. The debut wasn’t bad at all sound-wise, but the drums lacked that certain shotgun-quality that makes the 80s rock-feel complete. That has been taken care of as the skins bang with huge power. The guitars churn riffs like the Sunset Strip never lost any of the Aquanet-covered peacocks that littered it 20 years ago. The keyboards bring that warm, analog yummyness and vocalist Pekka Heino still delivers the best while combining Jon Bon Jovi and Steve Perry in an appropriately honey-drenched fashion.

Who Will You Run To Now gives a great speedy opener and the gasoline is poured strongly into the forest fire with Wildest Dreams, a song that could easily be one of the biggest jewels Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen never released. Runaways takes you off even further with a riff that is very much reminiscent of The Who’s classic Baba O’ Riley, but it soon returns 10 years back with a monstrous chorus that should take live crowds by storm. Game They Call Love and the sappier-than-thou ballad Play It From The Heart are the only tracks that haven’t gotten my head spinning uncontrollably so far, but the slight slump is soon corrected by the hard rocking title track, where Anette Olzon of Nightwish pulls off a nice vocal cameo.

Heard It On My Radio is probably my favourite tune on the record. Those synthesizer chords in the intro are pure bliss, straight-up awesomness from the likes of 1984-era Van Halen (a year that is mentioned in the song’s lyrics, coincidentally). A super glue-chorus, heavenly harmony vocals and a vintage guitar solo by Emppu Vuorinen seal the deal. Going Out With A Bang and Out Of My Head are very good mid-tempo rockers to lead into a devastating final duo of festivity. A spiffy cover-version of Loverboy-vocalist Mike Reno’s Chasing The Angels brings back the memories of the inhuman mullets and unforgiving patriotism that embodied the fighter pilot-movies of the 1980s (The original tune was on the Iron Eagle II-soundtrack, after all). I Am Rock closes the album with a thunderous anthem worthy of any stadium this planet could throw under it.

Like their debut in 2006, Heart Full Of Fire is craftily released just before the summer heat rises even in northern spots like Finland. I can’t really imagine an album released in the 21st century that would be better suited for a day at the beach or cruising down the highway at brutally unsafe speeds – well, except for maybe the band’s own False Metal. Brother Firetribe is a band for airheaded partying and a good time – and there is nothing degrading or sarcastic in that statement when the music is as brilliant as on Heart Full Of Fire.