Ring of Fire
Battle of Leningrad
Frontiers Records
2014
Ring of Fire’s story begins in the year 2000. Having completed a successful mini-tour with Yngwie Malmsteen in late 1999 on the heels of the “Alchemy” album, vocalist Mark Boals set about creating his second solo album, a collection of songs very neo-classical in their nature. When deciding on a line-up for the album, Tony MacAlpine came highly recommended and Tony in turn recommended Virgil Donati (Planet X) on drums. The impressive line-up was rounded out by classically-trained Artension keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij, with Boals and MacAlpine splitting bass duties.
However in recent years the band had been inactive, with band members getting involved in other projects, most notably with singer Mark Boals becoming singer for Royal Hunt and Kuprij and MacAlpine touring with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Steve Vai respectively. That is set to change this month with the imminent release of a new album in the well-known neoclassic style of the band, entitled The “Battle of Leningrad”.
It actually is a concept album based on the 900 days siege of the city during the second world war and the fierce resistance displayed by the Russian people that despite being surrounded on all sides with no food and no hope of rescue, under siege from the Nazi army never surrendered, even when almost 1 million of them almost starved to death, thus preventing the Nazi’s from taking over the city. It’s definitely one of World War II’s finest examples of heroism in the worst circumstances imaginable.
Musically there’s a variety of stuff here…
“Mother Russia” is an impressive pompous militaristic introductory song with rich melodies that serves almost as an overture to the whole story… but what struck me in the most appalling way, is some really badly mixed guitars, (ie @ 3:40) that sound too thin and bare… clean. It’s hard for me to believe that a guitarist of MacAlpine’s stature, would have allowed himself sound like that?! On a final mix.
“They’re Calling Your Name” is a very dramatic and both fast and fastidious track, that however falls prey of the production that makes it sound rather “flat”. Nice choruses and solos there, but... the overall production/mix of the album seems to have a very thin overall sound, with the guitar tone suffering the most along with the bass that almost disappears performance wise. The drums sound really weirdly pronounced in the mix and rather “hollow” too. The compression has really sucked all life out of the performances here... and “elsewhere” I’m afraid.
“Empire” sees Boals giving a vocal “recital” after a bit of an extended introduction, but most of the track is based around his impressive delivery. There’s also a closely intertwined rhythm that the keys seem to follow rather closely, for most of the duration, creating very atmospheric passages. Again... the production... leaves much to be desired… soundwise.
“Land of Frozen Tears” is a slow and melodic number that gets progressively more powerful and wonderful, but the production steals away a lot, from the “thunder” of this marvelous song...
The seven plus minute “Firewind” (nothing to do with the Greek power metallers or Uli Jon Roth’s album indeed) is a pretty nifty number with a really eruptive intro that then subsides to give way to a slower and more melodic series of verses, until it recycles it's fast paced chorus. It does repeat this motif a couple of times, dropping a nice little solo that’s quite different and closes in a pretty similar way! Not bad, but it wouldn’t win an originality award either!
“Where Angels Play” opens with a few bars from some classical piece, only to quickly trans-morph into typical neoclassical power metal fare, that intelligently reiterates the “theme” later on... through its keyboard fanfares.
The title track “Battle of Leningrad” is quite melodramatic, and bases itself on atmosphere a lot, without, overstaying it’s welcome. It’s more of a connecting piece, rather than a “song” so it manages to have a few musical themes, a very doomy “chorus” and to give a bleak summation of the whole account of what the album is all about in not over six and a half minutes.
“No Way Out” by title alone, would have you expecting something “fast-paced” and your gut-feeling, would be rightfully rewarded with some Yngwie-inspired neoclassical goodness, but with even more b(o)alls (excuse the-cheap-pun)! Think Iron Maiden meets Yngwie.
“Our World” is a nice, mellow ballad, soft and tender... presumably “after” the siege... and trying to pick up the broken pieces and start again, but at least, happy about being alive and ready to face another day...
And while I could understand it if the album concluded here...
“Rain” is the conclusion to the album that comes to give it a very dark and sorrowful conclusion... it’s a finely crafted and very dramatic composition... but maybe a step too far?
At any rate, while it’s great to have Ring of Fire back and their latest album stands well, when compared with their earlier catalog on a musical level, but the “production”/mix is far “inferior” than the world-class ones that these world-class musicians had us, used to. While I love the album, and normally would have graded it, much higher (ie easily 7,5), the mix is so annoyingly bad, that I cannot, grade it with more than a 5,5. After all these guys are supposed to be seasoned professionals and should not have accepted an inferior mix like this to represent their performances and artistry…
However in recent years the band had been inactive, with band members getting involved in other projects, most notably with singer Mark Boals becoming singer for Royal Hunt and Kuprij and MacAlpine touring with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Steve Vai respectively. That is set to change this month with the imminent release of a new album in the well-known neoclassic style of the band, entitled The “Battle of Leningrad”.
It actually is a concept album based on the 900 days siege of the city during the second world war and the fierce resistance displayed by the Russian people that despite being surrounded on all sides with no food and no hope of rescue, under siege from the Nazi army never surrendered, even when almost 1 million of them almost starved to death, thus preventing the Nazi’s from taking over the city. It’s definitely one of World War II’s finest examples of heroism in the worst circumstances imaginable.
Musically there’s a variety of stuff here…
“Mother Russia” is an impressive pompous militaristic introductory song with rich melodies that serves almost as an overture to the whole story… but what struck me in the most appalling way, is some really badly mixed guitars, (ie @ 3:40) that sound too thin and bare… clean. It’s hard for me to believe that a guitarist of MacAlpine’s stature, would have allowed himself sound like that?! On a final mix.
“They’re Calling Your Name” is a very dramatic and both fast and fastidious track, that however falls prey of the production that makes it sound rather “flat”. Nice choruses and solos there, but... the overall production/mix of the album seems to have a very thin overall sound, with the guitar tone suffering the most along with the bass that almost disappears performance wise. The drums sound really weirdly pronounced in the mix and rather “hollow” too. The compression has really sucked all life out of the performances here... and “elsewhere” I’m afraid.
“Empire” sees Boals giving a vocal “recital” after a bit of an extended introduction, but most of the track is based around his impressive delivery. There’s also a closely intertwined rhythm that the keys seem to follow rather closely, for most of the duration, creating very atmospheric passages. Again... the production... leaves much to be desired… soundwise.
“Land of Frozen Tears” is a slow and melodic number that gets progressively more powerful and wonderful, but the production steals away a lot, from the “thunder” of this marvelous song...
The seven plus minute “Firewind” (nothing to do with the Greek power metallers or Uli Jon Roth’s album indeed) is a pretty nifty number with a really eruptive intro that then subsides to give way to a slower and more melodic series of verses, until it recycles it's fast paced chorus. It does repeat this motif a couple of times, dropping a nice little solo that’s quite different and closes in a pretty similar way! Not bad, but it wouldn’t win an originality award either!
“Where Angels Play” opens with a few bars from some classical piece, only to quickly trans-morph into typical neoclassical power metal fare, that intelligently reiterates the “theme” later on... through its keyboard fanfares.
The title track “Battle of Leningrad” is quite melodramatic, and bases itself on atmosphere a lot, without, overstaying it’s welcome. It’s more of a connecting piece, rather than a “song” so it manages to have a few musical themes, a very doomy “chorus” and to give a bleak summation of the whole account of what the album is all about in not over six and a half minutes.
“No Way Out” by title alone, would have you expecting something “fast-paced” and your gut-feeling, would be rightfully rewarded with some Yngwie-inspired neoclassical goodness, but with even more b(o)alls (excuse the-cheap-pun)! Think Iron Maiden meets Yngwie.
“Our World” is a nice, mellow ballad, soft and tender... presumably “after” the siege... and trying to pick up the broken pieces and start again, but at least, happy about being alive and ready to face another day...
And while I could understand it if the album concluded here...
“Rain” is the conclusion to the album that comes to give it a very dark and sorrowful conclusion... it’s a finely crafted and very dramatic composition... but maybe a step too far?
At any rate, while it’s great to have Ring of Fire back and their latest album stands well, when compared with their earlier catalog on a musical level, but the “production”/mix is far “inferior” than the world-class ones that these world-class musicians had us, used to. While I love the album, and normally would have graded it, much higher (ie easily 7,5), the mix is so annoyingly bad, that I cannot, grade it with more than a 5,5. After all these guys are supposed to be seasoned professionals and should not have accepted an inferior mix like this to represent their performances and artistry…