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Glen

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This has been kept very quiet.....with just a few random Facebook messages from the band.

 

Got my first skip through listen today, and whilst I'm loathed to judge on this basis.....it sounded pretty disappointing to me. A couple of nice songs (like 'Crazy', 'Losers Lane').......but mostly mid-tempo tired sounding tracks :-(

 

Hey ho.

 

& Jan was looking so good, after Bad Habit & Miss Behaviour.

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Yeah, I saw this one sneak by in the Musicbuymail email I get. I was all like, wtf? Really? This I must check out asap, but sadly I won't be surprised if it disappoints. :(

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Yeah, I saw this one sneak by in the Musicbuymail email I get. I was all like, wtf? Really? This I must check out asap, but sadly I won't be surprised if it disappoints. :(

 

To be honest mate, it aint too bad.....just listening to it now.....just needs a big kick up the arse in places...v mid-tempo.

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Yeah, I saw this one sneak by in the Musicbuymail email I get. I was all like, wtf? Really? This I must check out asap, but sadly I won't be surprised if it disappoints. :(

 

To be honest mate, it aint too bad.....just listening to it now.....just needs a big kick up the arse in places...v mid-tempo.

Yeah, I'll give it a fair go. I actually thought 'The Rauber' was pretty descent. Still had some awful fillers, but not bad. I don't mind mid-tempo, as long as it's good mid-tempo. Their last almost-great effort was 'Fuel to the flames', imo, and most of the glory from that game from sultry mid-tempo rockers. As long as they're done well I'm happy. :)

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Yeah, I saw this one sneak by in the Musicbuymail email I get. I was all like, wtf? Really? This I must check out asap, but sadly I won't be surprised if it disappoints. :(

 

To be honest mate, it aint too bad.....just listening to it now.....just needs a big kick up the arse in places...v mid-tempo.

Yeah, I'll give it a fair go. I actually thought 'The Rauber' was pretty descent. Still had some awful fillers, but not bad. I don't mind mid-tempo, as long as it's good mid-tempo. Their last almost-great effort was 'Fuel to the flames', imo, and most of the glory from that game from sultry mid-tempo rockers. As long as they're done well I'm happy. :)

 

yeah this is v much in that vein....could be a grower.

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I'm a big Bonfire fan, so I like a lot from them. I thought The Rauber was decent enough, but I liked Double X alot. Notion Of Love, Wings To Fly, What's On Your Mind are all great songs. I have heard all the songs off the new cd, and it is going to be a grower. Losers Lane,Crazy,Save Me and Deadly Contradiction are pretty good.

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I liked the first 4 tracks, then I think track 8 and 9. The rest were very plain. So 6 is still a decent grab for me. His voice has lost something that is for sure, the harmonies and chorus parts on the tracks I liked are still vintage.

 

Worth checking out if you are a fan.

 

Mike

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I'll end up buying it, problem is for me that none of their releases match up to Fireworks.

Except 'Point Blank', which outclasses it... just slightly. ;)

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I'll end up buying it, problem is for me that none of their releases match up to Fireworks.

Except 'Point Blank', which outclasses it... just slightly. ;)

 

err, by a decent way for me :-)

 

That will always spark a debate tho.

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I'll end up buying it, problem is for me that none of their releases match up to Fireworks.

Except 'Point Blank', which outclasses it... just slightly. ;)

 

err, by a decent way for me :-)

 

That will always spark a debate tho.

 

 

Then I'll go ahead and throw a log in...Knock Out was just as good as both. Outside of those three, the other releases are good but never lived up to those again.

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I'll end up buying it, problem is for me that none of their releases match up to Fireworks.

Except 'Point Blank', which outclasses it... just slightly. ;)

 

err, by a decent way for me :-)

 

That will always spark a debate tho.

 

 

Then I'll go ahead and throw a log in...Knock Out was just as good as both. Outside of those three, the other releases are good but never lived up to those again.

 

I thought "Knock Out" was pretty hopeless at the time, but it amazingly then turned out to be their last decent album IMO. "Fireworks" is THE classic IMO, though it verged on AOR at times so I understand those who prefer the harder rockin' approach of "Point Blank". I think I bought the "Strike X" album (which sucked) so I will never buy any of their albums again (unless they do a "Fireworks 2"!)....

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I'll end up buying it, problem is for me that none of their releases match up to Fireworks.

Except 'Point Blank', which outclasses it... just slightly. ;)

 

err, by a decent way for me :-)

 

That will always spark a debate tho.

 

 

Then I'll go ahead and throw a log in...Knock Out was just as good as both. Outside of those three, the other releases are good but never lived up to those again.

 

I thought "Knock Out" was pretty hopeless at the time, but it amazingly then turned out to be their last decent album IMO. "Fireworks" is THE classic IMO, though it verged on AOR at times so I understand those who prefer the harder rockin' approach of "Point Blank". I think I bought the "Strike X" album (which sucked) so I will never buy any of their albums again (unless they do a "Fireworks 2"!)....

 

 

I pretty much loved Knock Out from the moment I got it back in 1992. Dirty Love, River's of Glory, Home Babe, Down and Out, Hold You to name a few. Great album. I thought Strike X was great half the album and not so much the rest. If you took the awesome 6-7 songs from it & Fuel to the Flames it would make one kick ass record. But I do have to agree...Fireworks was my first Bonfire album and it's their best. Classic!

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I like 'Knock out' too but nowhere near as much as the flawless 'Point Blank' and 'Fireworks' CDs.

 

As for the new one, I guess it's not too bad. Stuff like 'Save me', 'Crazy' and even that sappy ballad 'Hold me now' is all pretty good. There are some definite weak points on this CD and it's not great, but it sounds like there's a few redeeming qualities.

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"Knock out" isn't bad but it has too much fooling around/experimenting on it to me; does have some good songs though (Down and out; Hold You; Fight For Love; Take My Heart and Run). "Fireworks" is their classic/best IMO and my favorite; "Point Blank" is 2nd, and I'm surprised no one's mentioned "Don't Touch The Light". Even though they were kind of premature/green sounding and the production isn't the best, there's still some damn good catchy hard rockers on that one. "Starin Eyes" and "No More" rock and it also has a great ballad "You Make me Feel" to name a few. So it's as follows for me from their first 4 (which after that, like everyone has said, their albums just weren't nearly as strong): Fireworks, Point Blank, Don't Touch the Light, and Knock Out. The only other one I have by them is Fuel To The Flames and while it does have a few, very few, good songs - it has a lot of filler.

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"Knock out" isn't bad but it has too much fooling around/experimenting on it to me; does have some good songs though (Down and out; Hold You; Fight For Love; Take My Heart and Run). "Fireworks" is their classic/best IMO and my favorite; "Point Blank" is 2nd, and I'm surprised no one's mentioned "Don't Touch The Light". Even though they were kind of premature/green sounding and the production isn't the best, there's still some damn good catchy hard rockers on that one. "Starin Eyes" and "No More" rock and it also has a great ballad "You Make me Feel" to name a few. So it's as follows for me from their first 4 (which after that, like everyone has said, their albums just weren't nearly as strong): Fireworks, Point Blank, Don't Touch the Light, and Knock Out. The only other one I have by them is Fuel To The Flames and while it does have a few, very few, good songs - it has a lot of filler.

 

 

What do you mean by experimenting? I don't hear any of that.

 

You might also enjoy Rebel Soul and Strike X.

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"Knock out" isn't bad but it has too much fooling around/experimenting on it to me; does have some good songs though (Down and out; Hold You; Fight For Love; Take My Heart and Run). "Fireworks" is their classic/best IMO and my favorite; "Point Blank" is 2nd, and I'm surprised no one's mentioned "Don't Touch The Light". Even though they were kind of premature/green sounding and the production isn't the best, there's still some damn good catchy hard rockers on that one. "Starin Eyes" and "No More" rock and it also has a great ballad "You Make me Feel" to name a few. So it's as follows for me from their first 4 (which after that, like everyone has said, their albums just weren't nearly as strong): Fireworks, Point Blank, Don't Touch the Light, and Knock Out. The only other one I have by them is Fuel To The Flames and while it does have a few, very few, good songs - it has a lot of filler.

 

 

What do you mean by experimenting? I don't hear any of that.

 

You might also enjoy Rebel Soul and Strike X.

 

The weird wah lead/intro on "Home babe"; also the backing vocals in the chorus is kind of weird; "Tonmeister" also come to mind when I meant experimenting. They never used a wah on their previous albums and never had a weird track like "tonmeister" so I guess to me they seemed to be trying new/different things. They also had the cover of a once popular song "the Stroke" which I didn't expect I guess; though I just found out "Sleeping All Alone" was a cover and originally done by the band "Surgin"; Bonfire's version smokes it though and is Miles Away (pun intended; Winger reference) of Surgin's original version. I haven't listened to Knock Out in a while; I'll have to give it a listen this week to see if I can hear any more experimenting lol; I mean that album isn't a huge leap in a different direction or anything but I did think they tried a few new things on it. It does have some of the classic first 3 album Bonfire in it though but definitely not as strong.

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  • 1 month later...

I'll end up buying it, problem is for me that none of their releases match up to Fireworks.

Except 'Point Blank', which outclasses it... just slightly. ;)

 

err, by a decent way for me :-)

 

That will always spark a debate tho.

 

 

Then I'll go ahead and throw a log in...Knock Out was just as good as both. Outside of those three, the other releases are good but never lived up to those again.

 

I thought "Knock Out" was pretty hopeless at the time, but it amazingly then turned out to be their last decent album IMO. "Fireworks" is THE classic IMO, though it verged on AOR at times so I understand those who prefer the harder rockin' approach of "Point Blank". I think I bought the "Strike X" album (which sucked) so I will never buy any of their albums again (unless they do a "Fireworks 2"!)....

 

Fireworks is the ultimate Bonfire classic for me. Bonfire claims they are going back to that style with the Branded album. When I first heard the three songs I started to believe that Bonfire have made the best album since Fireworks since these songs were really good. But stardard of the songs that follows wasn't as good as the first three but it is still an enjoyable album. One of the best they have done in a long time.

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Really, I may have to re-visit it, personally I thought most of the album (apart from one or 2 obvious decent rockers) was as dull as dishwater :-(

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Really, I may have to re-visit it, personally I thought most of the album (apart from one or 2 obvious decent rockers) was as dull as dishwater :-(

 

Jump back in there Glen. Especially the first three tracks. It's like going back to the greatest Bonfire era without a million dollar production.

 

The mid and last part of the album isn't that exciting.

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  • 3 years later...

I penned scores for their discography the other day and here were the results:

 

1. Point Blank - 1989 - 93
2. Fireworks - 1988 - 87
3. Knock Out - 1991 - 81
(End Of An Era Demos - 1993 - 79)
4. Strike X - 2001 - 76
5. Fuel To The Flames - 1999 - 73
6. The Rauber - 2008 - 73
7. Don't Touch The Light - 1986 - 72
8. Double X - 2006 - 70
9. Rebel Soul - 1998 - 68
10. Feels Like Coming Home - 1996 - 66
11. Branded - 2011 - 66
12. Free - 2003 - 63
I think the biggest surprise to come out of the listening experience was that 'Strike X' is actually a pretty damn good album. I always thought 'Fuel to the flames' would be their 4th best disc, but it was not to be. I was also surprised at just how poor 'Rebel Soul' is, aside from two really great songs on it. It's an interesting discography, with 30% difference between their best and worst album, imo.
There's no doubt the magic died when the the band fell to pieces in that 1992-1994 period, and the new personnel when the band was resurrected never got close to capturing the magic that the early versions of the band had. But in saying that, there are some good songs sprinkled throughout the second era of their career.
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I recently rated 'Point Blank' 96.5% and the sequence is also very similar but I'm quite surprised to see 'Don't Touch The Light' so low. I haven't rated that so have no idea but maybe later I'll try it out for that year, I completely forgot how that album sounds haha

 

oh and btw, I suggest you use the technique of counting only 12 best tracks after dropping intro track and any tracks below 2 minutes. I guess it's fair because if a band recorded more than 12 than they're being generous and didn't deserve to be 'punished' for having couple of weaker tracks, consider that like bonus tracks for Japanese pressing :)

 

and I usually also put 3 more factors so the divider became 15 instead of 12.

The sound production, the replay value, and the musicianship level, because you know many albums sound bad and some has stellar production, also some albums are so great but too identical hence the replay value is lower, and also musicianship is an important factor, some have strong singer but poor rhythm section, and vice versa.

 

It's interesting to see how a CD ended up by adding that :D

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I like 'Knock out' too but nowhere near as much as the flawless 'Point Blank' and 'Fireworks' CDs.

 

 

 

And that's the problem for me... they created two near perfect albums in 1986 - 1988 and haven't come close to repeating it since. Maybe I'm just too old to get the "new" stuff?

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I like 'Knock out' too but nowhere near as much as the flawless 'Point Blank' and 'Fireworks' CDs.

 

 

 

And that's the problem for me... they created two near perfect albums in 1986 - 1988 and haven't come close to repeating it since. Maybe I'm just too old to get the "new" stuff?

 

 

No, I guess maybe the band is too old to trying new stuffs :D

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I recently rated 'Point Blank' 96.5% and the sequence is also very similar but I'm quite surprised to see 'Don't Touch The Light' so low. I haven't rated that so have no idea but maybe later I'll try it out for that year, I completely forgot how that album sounds haha

 

oh and btw, I suggest you use the technique of counting only 12 best tracks after dropping intro track and any tracks below 2 minutes. I guess it's fair because if a band recorded more than 12 than they're being generous and didn't deserve to be 'punished' for having couple of weaker tracks, consider that like bonus tracks for Japanese pressing :)

 

and I usually also put 3 more factors so the divider became 15 instead of 12.

The sound production, the replay value, and the musicianship level, because you know many albums sound bad and some has stellar production, also some albums are so great but too identical hence the replay value is lower, and also musicianship is an important factor, some have strong singer but poor rhythm section, and vice versa.

 

It's interesting to see how a CD ended up by adding that :D

 

'Don't touch the light' is a typical early 80's European hard rock album. All those brilliant bands - Bonfire, TNT, Fate, Treat etc... they all have that kind crabby debut from the early 80's. And Bonfire are no different. It's not awful, but it's a really average album, and if anything, my 72% is very generous.

 

Haha, you creeps can rate however y'all want, but for me, if there's 15 songs on a CD I'll rate the 15. Is there's 5, I'll rate 5. To each their own, but I just rate what's before me - nothing more, nothing less.

 

As for the last paragraph, as I said to DaHun the other day, every single score I give for a song incorporates the hooks, verses, chorus, production, vibe, vocals, guitar, drums, overall sound, musicianship, replay value etc. There is absolutely no point doing a separate score for anything, because it's all part of my rating. That's why demos rate poorly, and Britny Fox-styled vocalists always hold back otherwise good bands. Though sometime a song just rises above everything, including weak vocals, like a flawless 'Still the one' by Brighton Rock. F*ck me do I love that song, even with those high pitched vocals in the chorus.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbBtmj6x8pM

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