Feeding the Flames

Jeez, here we go again. Finnish power metal. You know I’m a sucker for this stuff. I picked up FEEDING THE FLAMES as a total impulse buy at the local shop. Figuring that I couldn’t go very wrong with a Limb music release by a bunch of Finnish guys with a cover as cool as this, I took it home.

Wow, am I glad I picked this one up. This is more than your typical Finnish power metal album. Burning Point combines consideraable doses of both the speedy Euro power metal and ripping traditional metal that really stands out from other bands.

FEEDING THE FLAMES, the sophomore album by Burning Point, is quite an album in all respects. Whether the band is blazing full away in a melodic speed metal frenzy, or scaling back to a ballad that still has plenty of power, this is just a kick-ass release.

“Into the Fire” blows the album wide apart in a mere 3 minutes of high-energy speed metal. I mean, holy fuck. The speed is unreal, and the powerful chords behind the lead make a full, rich sound. Absolutely incredible. Moving along to “Blackened the Sun” (WTF?), we’ve got a strong traditional metal crunchy song sounding very much like Lost Horizon’s amazing debut. The solos here aren’t very long, but they’re focused. Throughout the album, the axework draws from both the traditional metal style as well as the neoclassical school. Speaking of Lost Horizon, I gotta mention the vocal power of Pete Ahonen. Ok, he’s not as mind-blowing as Daniel Heiman, Ahonen’s delivery really makes Burning Point stand out. His voice is strong and clean, but he is strongest around the mid-range with his emotional delivery. What’s even cooler is that not only is Pete holding down the vocals, but also the Changing gears a bit, we move to three slower to mid-paced songs, including the ultra-catchy “Voices from the Past,” and the slow “I Am the Silent One,” with a beautiful solo and a moving rhythm. After the symphonic intro to “Stray Bullet,” breaks away much like the first track on the album. No keyboard washes here; the synths are used as backing, and sparingly at that. The bass work on here is monstrous and thundering; in addition, we have some of the tightest rhythm/lead pairings on the album. I get a strong sense of early Hammerfall, or newer Gamma Ray on this one. The next song up is a cover, titled “Night Games.” I wasn’t able to find out who performed the original, but it is credited to Ed Hamilton. In any case, this is an interesting song, with a poppy-80s-ish sound to it. It’s catchy as hell, and the middle solo really stands out. As we near the last third of the album, FEEDING THE FLAMES is still holding strong to the consistency with which it started. Closing out are “All the Madness,” a semi-ballad in the late Savatage style (especially the chorus), and the album’s masterpiece, “Feeding the Flames.” This one track sums up everything about Burning Point’s music in one 8-minute track. Plenty of time and style changes keep this one interesting, including a surprisingly big epic choir that could have come straight from Rhapsody.

FEEDING THE FLAMES is not only well-written and masterfully-performed, but it also has the necessary elements to make it a fun and thoroughly enjoyable listen. I can highly recommend this one to all fans of traditional, neoclassical, and power metal.