Fireleaf – Behind the Mask

[nyrating]

14th February 2016 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

This is the debut album of this German power metal (with balls) band, but with ex-Stormwitch members Ralf Stoney and Micha Kasper (Glennmore) a band with a lot of experience. That experience I can certainly hear because the music is very mature and the songs are well arranged. With Micha Vetter (Chinchilla) on bass and Aki Reismann (Pump) on guitar two other veterans are present. For me however Bastain Rose (ex Vanish) is the real star. He has a singing style reminding of a combination of Warrel Dane and Brainstorm vocalist Andy B. Franck.

Bastian puts a lot of variety in his singing, which has all to do with the concept story about a deranged man. In “Bloody Tears” even some very aggressive almost grunting style passes by. The music on the album is tough typical German power metal and fans of Brainstorm, Primal Fear, but also Dream Evil will be dribbling. In general however the songs are a bit more complex and with quite some variety compared with the general power metal band. “Faceless” is blessed with a nice sing a long refrain and breaths a certain darkness. To recover a bit from all this violence there is a resting point called “Forgiven”. Next on is “Death Throes”, a song with a nice bass line and teutonic true metal influences. “The Quest” follows with a theatrical singing style after which “Isolation” in Brainstorm style continues with the story. Midtempo track “Tales of Terror” is again a typical power metal track liked for sure by Dream Evil fans.

Fans of bands like Running Wild and Stormwitch can take a listen as well, but the music on this album is a bit more complex and modern sounding. The title track puts an end to this very good debut album. For the last time the emotional Warrel/Andy combined singing style takes the lead and you hear the madness in the music.

Does the world need another tough German power metal band I hear you think…. well as long as the quality and performance are of this high quality, there never can be enough!

Tracklist:

01. Bloody Tears
02. Monsterman
03. Faceless
04. Forgiven
05. Death Throes
06. The Quest
07. Isolation
08. Tales Of Terror
09. King Of Madness
10. Behind the Mask

Playing time: 47:00

Release date: 19 February 2016

Label: Massacre Records

Website: www.fireleaf.de

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...