Burning Point - EMPYRE

\r\nThis is the fourth album that Burning Point release, leaving out a single they had released in 2004. Their line up has had it’s ups and downs over the years, especially after their head on collision with their first Record label (Limb Music) which eventually ended up in court and resulted in the loss of their record deal. After they pulled themselves together and stabilized their line up, they released “Burned Down the Enemy” in 2006 with their new record label (Metal Heaven) and eventually in February of 2009 they released “Empyre”. The European Release includes 11 songs (the ones listed on top) and the first pressing includes 4 more bonus tracks which are recorded with a few well known guests: “I’ll be yours” (Kirka cover) with the cooperation of Tapio “Taage” Laiho in vocals and Riku Kukkonen in lead guitar (both ex – Kirka), “Nucklear Skies” (The Rods cover) with David “Rock” Feinstein (of The Rods and Feinstein) in lead guitar, Q5’s “Let Go” with Jonathan K of Q5 and Nightshade in vocals and Gabriele Palermo of Tragedian in lead guitar, and finally the widely appreciated Running Wild’s “Gods Of Iron” along with Majk Moti (ex – Running Wild) in lead guitar. Also, the Japanese release includes 3 more bonus tracks which are: “Black Star” and “Lake Pf Blood” (both from their first studio album, “Salvation by Fire” of 2001) in another version recorded in 2008, and also “Remains Of My Broken Dreams”.\r\n

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\r\nComing back to the album at hand, it starts with the theme from the movie “The Godfather” as an intro and is followed by the song “Empyre” which like most of this album has strong vocals, heavy riffs and well-worked keys. Since there is no Immaculate Conception anywhere, let alone in music, this album has clearly been strongly influenced by bands that ruled the 80s and that is quite obvious in songs like “Manic Merry-Go-Round”, “Face The Truth”, “Fool’s Parade” and “Only The Strong Will Survive”. The album also includes two ballads, which aren’t anything much but they are quite pleasant to the ear, since the first includes a nicely played guitar solo that takes you places in your head. The production is good enough and in general the band did a really nice work in this album. Fans of classic or power metal, especially 80’s heavy metal will not be disappointed from this album. At least, my time passed pleasantly enough while listening to it.\r\n

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\r\nIro Kapeloni
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