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Blog Categories Review FIREHOUSE - The Story Of Italian AOR Band - Reviewed By Redazione Italia di Metallo!

FIREHOUSE - The Story Of Italian AOR Band - Reviewed By Redazione Italia di Metallo! Friday March 4 2022, 12:25 PM

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FIREHOUSE - The Story Of Italian AOR Band - Reviewed By Redazione Italia di Metallo! Check it out here at this link: https://www.italiadimetallo.it/recensioni/32778/firehouse/the-story-of-the-italian-aor-band-1987-1994

Very valuable reissue by perte of the Music For The Masses label of the two albums published by the Italian FIREHOUSE, the homonymous Firehouse of 1987, never printed on CD and the subsequent Labyrinth (1994), in a strafic and extravagant box (only 300 numbered copies), for which fans and collectors of AOR goodies and not only, you are warned.

Firehouse (the record) begins with the 987 Overture intro that carries you in weight in the glittering 80s as the Ducati carburetor in the 1986 remake of The Fly transported Jeff Goldblum from one side of scientist Seth Brundle's lab to the other: the time gap is open and "The Secret of The Sky" is the piece that the Scorpions never had the courage to write for Savage Amusement , a firework from start to finish.

"Open Your Wall" and "Way out for freedom" continue to maintain a high level of involvement and there is one thing that I absolutely want to emphasize in addition to the credibility of the band and the completeness and validity of the songs: the singing in English is convincing, something that often, nowadays, seems a luxury (or a chimera) for many of those who try their hand at the language of Queen Lillibeth ...

After the short interlude of "Pray" things become almost hard rock with "Time To Fly" and "Break The Bonds" which even calls into question the guitarism of Ritchie Blackmore for a short, but very intense piece.

"House Of The Fire", from the acoustic and baroque incipit smells of Yngwie Malmsteen and, why not, also of Maiden, for an instrumental that at a certain point starts and no longer stops, between riffs and solos that, if it happens in its time ...

The first album closes with the triumphant "This is My Life" a real anthem of a musical era that will never return, a middle ground between Europe and Queen contemporaries, exciting: in 1987 it would have been a slow to dance, without shame, with the girlfriend of the time, if I had had one ...

Labyrinth starts with a new awareness and maturity compared to the previous album, even if the imprint that characterizes the band remains: great melodies supported by solid and scratchy pieces, with a guitar always at the forefront.

"I Need The Fire" and the lively "Calling Your Name" open the dances, the latter with the melodic nerve that I would find a few years later in Glenn Hughes' Ten.

"In My Eyes" is another beautiful engaging ballad, which makes me even more amazed by the lack of success of this record, but then I realize that the year in which the music came out had changed for a while and the attention was now turned elsewhere, a real shame.

"Running Into Danger", which follows the interesting "Striking", is another great instrumental in which neoclassical guitar and keyboard face each other in a duel in which both are winners, in light of the good Swede with the cream and cream-colored Stratocaster.

The second part of the album serves a bit 'to the band to show the "muscles" in some instrumentals that concert the anthemic "Labyrinth" and "Fly By Night", this piece with a guitarist in a state of grace and for the final "The Color Of Your Kiss" another beautiful song gritty and melodic at the same time, worthy closure for this box set that deserves the recovery of fans of the genre.

I will not be here to further scratch my brain to find the reasons why the umpteenth valid Italian band did not have at the time the deserved consideration; I will limit myself to noting that the songs were there and were up to compete with foreign competition and therefore remains a bit of regret only partially mitigated by the pleasure of rediscovering these records that deserve the opportunity to be heard and appreciated. - Redazione

Release Date: December 3, 2021

FFO: Europe, Stryper, Queensryche

FIREHOUSE “THE STORY OF ITALIAN A.O.R. BAND 1987/1994”

DOUBLE DIGIPACK WITH THE ALBUMS FIREHOUSE (1987) AND LABYRINTH (1994)

The new release from Music for the Masses is a special one, for many reasons!

First of all, the Remastered reissue of the only two albums (the debut was never issued on CD before!) released by the Italian Firehouse, nearly impossible to find nowadays, if not at incredible prices. And then the desire to share with you two records that came out in the late 80s-early 90s, which could should have become A.O.R. masterpieces.

You have to take into consideration several factors, while approaching these albums.
The recordings are about 25 years old and the albums were released with no internet around or, at least, wasn’t used the way it is today. Technology wasn’t of course as advanced as today and it was much harder to promote a record without social networks and so on.

In spite of that, the Italian Firehouse put out two true A.O.R. gems, the first in 1987…a year in which their U.S. eponymous band weren’t even formed!

That’s the reason why we strongly desire that you will be able to discover 2 fundamental albums which show the artistry of this Italian band.

The package is a truly elegant one, a double 6-fold digipack in numbered edition, limited to 300 copies.

Make yourselves a present, make it yours!

At the following links you can find the Version of SECRET OF THE SKY Re-Recorded in 2021 by the Band just for the occasion of the release of the double CD

STREAMING: https://bfan.link/the-secret-of-the-sky

Check out the video!