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October 12, 2008 |
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BURNING POINT - Burned Down The Enemy
Metal Heaven (2007) |
8.5/10 |
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01. Parasite
02. Heart Of Gold
03. Dawn Of The Ancient War
04. Hell Awaits
05. From The Beginning Of It All
06. Icebound
07. Deceiver
08. Eye For An Eye
09. To Hell And Back
10. Against The Madness Of Time
11. Burned Down The Enemy
12. My Reign, My Fire (bonus track)
13. Heart Of Gold "demo" (bonus track)
14. The Road To Hell (bonus rack)
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This is the third album from this group hailing from Finland, which according to their website uses influences as diversified and prestigious as ACCEPT, PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH as well as well as YNGWIE MALSTEEN combined with the energy of musicality of CHILDREN OF BODOM. With live experience mostly built in support of other Scandinavian formations, including THUNDERSTONE, among others, BURNING POINT have, until now, received a fairly positive feedback from the international Metal media. Based on the first exposure to a few samples I previously heard for their next album to come, I was quite anxious about having a chance to hear the whole thing when finally made available on Metal Heaven (BLOODBOUND, HEED, LEGS DIAMOND, RIOT).
Aside from the aforementioned influences, I would be more inclined to believe that, much to their benefit, BURNING POINT are possibly the first ones ever to be able to harmonize elements from more radically opposite styles, at least as far as Power Metal is concerned. From the first couple of tracks, "Parasite" and "Dawn Of The Ancient War", we can hear the happy spirit of HELLOWEEN as well as the universal shadow of MAIDEN and also the warrior spirit of MANOWAR turning this album and the fourteen pieces it contains into the ultimate Melodic Metal treasure chest! No argument with the fact that Pete Ahonen is exceptional not only as a guitarist but also by excelling as a singer, reaching impressively high notes on a track like "From The Beginning Of It All". To sum up, the shadow of MALMSTEEN is more than obvious on tracks like "Icebound" and in what could still reasonably be considered as the beginning of their career, BURNING POINT has the potential to become an alpha of the Power Metal pack!
Except for a very few ballads, most of the tracks should please fans of Speed Metal with hyper-blasting drums and killer riffs. However, the whole ensemble would have sounded much better with less keyboards, which may appear, at least to the purists, somewhat overwhelming. Ironically when keyboardist Jussi Ontero takes over the drums on the final three songs starting with "To Hell And Back", the atmosphere immediately takes a more aggressive turn. Fortunately this time around, the amazing display of guitar virtuosity is not taken over by the keys. The album ends with the title track, "Burned Down The Enemy", which remains one of the highlights of the present selection. The limited edition of the album includes bonus material such as previously unreleased and the very groovy "My Reign, My Fire" as well as the demo version of "Heart Of Gold" (which sounds exactly like the album version!) and a surprising cover of Chris Rea's "The Road To Hell".
With only three years of existence, Metal Heaven has been able to build a solid reputation based on the release of quality albums in a wide category of genres. Lets just hope that BURNING POINT's next album will leave more room for the guitars and a more discreet role for the keyboards.
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