Gus G.
I Am the Fire
Century Media
2014
Gus G. has risen to the forefront of the metal elite of guitarists from rather humble beginnings, by ways of tenacity and hard work and constant touring with his band, Firewind. I still remember receiving the demo of Firewind as a trio many moons ago, which wasn’t that impressive, apart from a couple of songs that showed promise songwriting wise and the guitar playing that was quite competent, for a guy that young, but through the years and with each subsequent album and tour Firewind managed to gain more fans, even with all their minor lineup changes and as of late, Gus even managed to somehow score Zakk Wylde’s ex spot beside Ozzy Osbourne, which sort of took a lot of people by surprise, I would imagine.
With crazy clashing schedules and bizarre circumstances surrounding his band and career and possibly a bunch of songs that didn’t exactly fit the Firewind cannon “exactly”, Gus, must have thought it was a good time to give Firewind a sabbatical, so as to have “renewed” interest in them, whenever they return, as they did seem to be reaching an end of an era with Apollo’s departure, but they were also sort of beginning to experience a bit of a plateau in overall popularity as well (apart from being discovered in the UK, which obviously has a latency of a few years when it comes to more traditionally sounding “metal”) so hence the idea to do a solo album was born.
“I Am the Fire” (now that’s an inspired title – if I say so! I just hope he doesn’t follow it with an "I break like the wind", sophomore effort :D [hope you get the Spinal Tap ref]) is the title of the album and in it the Firewind mainman, presents some 12 compositions, 2 of them instrumentals and 10 songs, mostly fronted by Mats Levén, but also featuring a variety of guest musicians and singers that his producer did help him to procure.
“My Will Be Done” was the first song that was publicized, as a video and is sort of a middle of the way... song. While it has some Firewind mannerisms, it’s sort of slower and Mats Levén sounds as if he’s going for a clearly American hard rocking style trying to fit the lyrics he's given to sing... for some bizarre reason the riff and some rhythm ideas really brought me to mind Kreator’s “Violent Revolution” which I sort of found a little funny. Not the most impressive opener to be honest.
“Blame It on Me” maintains Mats on the vocals and it has a nice mid paced rhythm and this sort of Priest meets Megadeth flavor to it, that really works in its favor. The solo is positively sparkling too.
“I Am the Fire” that we had the distinct pleasure to listen Mat’s delivering at the Unity concerts is delivered by Devour The Day and it’s too “American” ie for fans of Disturbed and the likes. Not being a fan of these “neoteristic” style, I much preferred the Mats version, as it was higher pitched and edgier... don’t get me wrong, it’s a good song, probably the HIT of the record, but here, it’s a slightly underwhelming version of it...
“Vengeance” (feat. David Ellefson from Megadeth) is an instrumental, that ups the ante and metals up the whole scene and is more typically, “Firewind”-like, with the rhythm section, slightly “pronounced” but not “overlapping anything” just so as to display the guest’s undeniable playing chops. Pretty good and Gus is flashy overall.
“Long Way Down” (feat. Alexia Rodriguez from Eyes Set To Kill) is very by the numbers, nu-breedish, ballad, for the American radio, this homogenized, “I’m an emotional mess-teen angst thing” that’s just too pretentious. It’s passable and you can take that word with both meanings, ie, it’s OK and you can skip it too... if you’re slightly serious.
“Just Can’t Let Go” feat. Jacob Bunton who’s a dude from a band called Lynam. That allegedly had some success stateside – never heard of them – you know all those one shit nu-wonders that sold 2 million and then nothing – he’s the equivalent of a male Alexia Rodriguez. Male Emo-core, done for the American radio. Not bad, although his voice sounds a little strained/pushed. Even the track isn’t all that horrible, but again it’s nothing you’d really remember in a week.
“Terrified” (feat. Billy Sheehan) is up next and if GG, had a bassist fetish, well on this album, he must have gotten a double dose of satisfaction, since apart from DE, he also got to have Mr Big’s, David Lee Roth’s and countless others collaborators to play with him. “Terrified” is even flashier than “Vengeance” with a lot of chunky riffs and a constant solo going on through most of its duration !
The return of the prodigal Mats Levén that is… haha, is up next for “Eyes Wide Open” a mid-tempo song that is shrouded in mystery and frankly a definite improvement over all the nu-metallish flavored emo-core malarkey... Gus openly spoke about him being him being Firewind’s first and foremost choice, in replacing Apollo, but it seems that he wasn’t available... from a song they did play together, he did seem like an indeed impressive “fit”. One will have to wait and see, what they might do in the future... surely any new material from Gus and Firewind will be way heavier, that’s for sure.
“Redemption” features Mr. Motormouth Michael Starr from Steel Panther, but it’s somehow bizarre to listen to him do a straight power metal tune. He does it justice. He’s a good, no, great singer... even if he’s a little more geared toward the LA/Hair style, he still fits well this song, but it’s just a pity that this song doesn’t talk about titties :P! I expect a version 2.0 with tits and asses galore! Then I will give it my full marks! C’mon, one doesn’t simply get MS and make him sing about redemption… at least you could make the lyric, say “Redemption’s a BITCH!” – yeah well... even with Gus being a half-American, the lyrics don’t avoid being toe curlingly, straightforwardly, cheesy or downright bad sometimes!
“Summer Days” features JSS, and when I first heard it by Mats Levén at the Unity concerts, I wasn’t “that” impressed... but I thought, OK, this was given to JSS for a reason, so listening to it with a JSS vocal, yeah, it’s a nice loose, breezy song, that has and “Eyes” vibe, although it’s not THAT good, but it sort of is one of the better songs on the album.
“Dreamkeeper” (feat. Tom S. Englund) is a decent semi balladesque composition, that Englund mostly carries with his vocal, the chorus is nice but too short, I suppose the solo is a rather nice moment. It’s a good song, but it could have been a bit better as well.
Very fittingly tacked at the end of the album’s tracklist “End of the Line” (feat. Mats Levén) is obviously the last song on the album and it’s a slow winded song with very minimal orchestration and Mats really showing off, giving a really nice performance, gritty and passionate, warm and soulful, complimented quite nicely by a rather fitting solo by Gus.
The production is good, clean to the point where it’s almost clinical and if you like Gus’ tone you’ll really enjoy it all. I would not mind a bid more “warmth” and a little more “verb” and “dirt” in the proceedings, but I guess, since it’s a more hard rock thing, than metal... well... maybe, I’d want the whole thing a little “warmer”… but that’s not to say that it’s bad, it’s world class, obviously.
Now, this is obviously a mixed bag of “crisps”/“songs”, since this is a bit of a Frankenstein of an album. It might have been fun to have a song with Kelly “Sundown” Carpender (Darkology, ex-Outworld) in here, but maybe they avoided that, because it would have been, too obvious? Who knows?! When I heard about the solo, I thought, hey, they might as well have a song with that guy in there, if they trust him enough to front the band.
As for the album, there are parts of it that are likeable, others that are forgettable, some are obviously made for American radio, some show that try as he may, Gus is FIREwind, so, no matter how hard he tries, that influence trickles down to his composing, ehm... he can pen a song, I’m just not too sure, if he’s being too critical on selecting the absolute best material and if he’s 100 % mature yet. But he’s getting better with time, in some years, since he’s still young, I can see him, playing some fine bluesier stuff, if he ever “discovers that” it happened to a lot of people you know…
If Gus is the fire, I’m undecided, or better yet, I stand divided… (if not for all the more filler-like American-flavored radio stuff and some indifferent stuff, there are some nice songs here...)
With crazy clashing schedules and bizarre circumstances surrounding his band and career and possibly a bunch of songs that didn’t exactly fit the Firewind cannon “exactly”, Gus, must have thought it was a good time to give Firewind a sabbatical, so as to have “renewed” interest in them, whenever they return, as they did seem to be reaching an end of an era with Apollo’s departure, but they were also sort of beginning to experience a bit of a plateau in overall popularity as well (apart from being discovered in the UK, which obviously has a latency of a few years when it comes to more traditionally sounding “metal”) so hence the idea to do a solo album was born.
“I Am the Fire” (now that’s an inspired title – if I say so! I just hope he doesn’t follow it with an "I break like the wind", sophomore effort :D [hope you get the Spinal Tap ref]) is the title of the album and in it the Firewind mainman, presents some 12 compositions, 2 of them instrumentals and 10 songs, mostly fronted by Mats Levén, but also featuring a variety of guest musicians and singers that his producer did help him to procure.
“My Will Be Done” was the first song that was publicized, as a video and is sort of a middle of the way... song. While it has some Firewind mannerisms, it’s sort of slower and Mats Levén sounds as if he’s going for a clearly American hard rocking style trying to fit the lyrics he's given to sing... for some bizarre reason the riff and some rhythm ideas really brought me to mind Kreator’s “Violent Revolution” which I sort of found a little funny. Not the most impressive opener to be honest.
“Blame It on Me” maintains Mats on the vocals and it has a nice mid paced rhythm and this sort of Priest meets Megadeth flavor to it, that really works in its favor. The solo is positively sparkling too.
“I Am the Fire” that we had the distinct pleasure to listen Mat’s delivering at the Unity concerts is delivered by Devour The Day and it’s too “American” ie for fans of Disturbed and the likes. Not being a fan of these “neoteristic” style, I much preferred the Mats version, as it was higher pitched and edgier... don’t get me wrong, it’s a good song, probably the HIT of the record, but here, it’s a slightly underwhelming version of it...
“Vengeance” (feat. David Ellefson from Megadeth) is an instrumental, that ups the ante and metals up the whole scene and is more typically, “Firewind”-like, with the rhythm section, slightly “pronounced” but not “overlapping anything” just so as to display the guest’s undeniable playing chops. Pretty good and Gus is flashy overall.
“Long Way Down” (feat. Alexia Rodriguez from Eyes Set To Kill) is very by the numbers, nu-breedish, ballad, for the American radio, this homogenized, “I’m an emotional mess-teen angst thing” that’s just too pretentious. It’s passable and you can take that word with both meanings, ie, it’s OK and you can skip it too... if you’re slightly serious.
“Just Can’t Let Go” feat. Jacob Bunton who’s a dude from a band called Lynam. That allegedly had some success stateside – never heard of them – you know all those one shit nu-wonders that sold 2 million and then nothing – he’s the equivalent of a male Alexia Rodriguez. Male Emo-core, done for the American radio. Not bad, although his voice sounds a little strained/pushed. Even the track isn’t all that horrible, but again it’s nothing you’d really remember in a week.
“Terrified” (feat. Billy Sheehan) is up next and if GG, had a bassist fetish, well on this album, he must have gotten a double dose of satisfaction, since apart from DE, he also got to have Mr Big’s, David Lee Roth’s and countless others collaborators to play with him. “Terrified” is even flashier than “Vengeance” with a lot of chunky riffs and a constant solo going on through most of its duration !
The return of the prodigal Mats Levén that is… haha, is up next for “Eyes Wide Open” a mid-tempo song that is shrouded in mystery and frankly a definite improvement over all the nu-metallish flavored emo-core malarkey... Gus openly spoke about him being him being Firewind’s first and foremost choice, in replacing Apollo, but it seems that he wasn’t available... from a song they did play together, he did seem like an indeed impressive “fit”. One will have to wait and see, what they might do in the future... surely any new material from Gus and Firewind will be way heavier, that’s for sure.
“Redemption” features Mr. Motormouth Michael Starr from Steel Panther, but it’s somehow bizarre to listen to him do a straight power metal tune. He does it justice. He’s a good, no, great singer... even if he’s a little more geared toward the LA/Hair style, he still fits well this song, but it’s just a pity that this song doesn’t talk about titties :P! I expect a version 2.0 with tits and asses galore! Then I will give it my full marks! C’mon, one doesn’t simply get MS and make him sing about redemption… at least you could make the lyric, say “Redemption’s a BITCH!” – yeah well... even with Gus being a half-American, the lyrics don’t avoid being toe curlingly, straightforwardly, cheesy or downright bad sometimes!
“Summer Days” features JSS, and when I first heard it by Mats Levén at the Unity concerts, I wasn’t “that” impressed... but I thought, OK, this was given to JSS for a reason, so listening to it with a JSS vocal, yeah, it’s a nice loose, breezy song, that has and “Eyes” vibe, although it’s not THAT good, but it sort of is one of the better songs on the album.
“Dreamkeeper” (feat. Tom S. Englund) is a decent semi balladesque composition, that Englund mostly carries with his vocal, the chorus is nice but too short, I suppose the solo is a rather nice moment. It’s a good song, but it could have been a bit better as well.
Very fittingly tacked at the end of the album’s tracklist “End of the Line” (feat. Mats Levén) is obviously the last song on the album and it’s a slow winded song with very minimal orchestration and Mats really showing off, giving a really nice performance, gritty and passionate, warm and soulful, complimented quite nicely by a rather fitting solo by Gus.
The production is good, clean to the point where it’s almost clinical and if you like Gus’ tone you’ll really enjoy it all. I would not mind a bid more “warmth” and a little more “verb” and “dirt” in the proceedings, but I guess, since it’s a more hard rock thing, than metal... well... maybe, I’d want the whole thing a little “warmer”… but that’s not to say that it’s bad, it’s world class, obviously.
Now, this is obviously a mixed bag of “crisps”/“songs”, since this is a bit of a Frankenstein of an album. It might have been fun to have a song with Kelly “Sundown” Carpender (Darkology, ex-Outworld) in here, but maybe they avoided that, because it would have been, too obvious? Who knows?! When I heard about the solo, I thought, hey, they might as well have a song with that guy in there, if they trust him enough to front the band.
As for the album, there are parts of it that are likeable, others that are forgettable, some are obviously made for American radio, some show that try as he may, Gus is FIREwind, so, no matter how hard he tries, that influence trickles down to his composing, ehm... he can pen a song, I’m just not too sure, if he’s being too critical on selecting the absolute best material and if he’s 100 % mature yet. But he’s getting better with time, in some years, since he’s still young, I can see him, playing some fine bluesier stuff, if he ever “discovers that” it happened to a lot of people you know…
If Gus is the fire, I’m undecided, or better yet, I stand divided… (if not for all the more filler-like American-flavored radio stuff and some indifferent stuff, there are some nice songs here...)