By Andrew Catania
With any new Frontiers release, I automatically look to see if it’s produced by Alessandro Del Vecchio. If I do see his name, I’ll know it sounds like the same five or so other albums that Frontiers has him as an in house producer. The same keyboards and the same dull and boring sound. I’m not knocking him as a musician, just his producing skills are lacking in a major way and Frontiers still uses him for some reason. When Frontiers puts these supergroups together, you have to take into consideration that most of these collaborations will never tour.
Spirits of Fire is a band made up of Tim Ripper Owens, Chris Caffery, Steve DiGiorgio, and Mark Zonder.
This album is a refreshing change for Frontiers to get away from the horrid Del Vecchio produced music that’s released. Ripper’s voice is in top shape. Caffery hasn’t lost his touch on the fretboard and DiGiorgio and Zonder bring there A game to this album.
A little experimentation occurs throughout the collection – with songs ranging from rockers like Light Speed Marching and All Comes Together to tracks like It’s Everywhere and Never To Return that gives the band room to take the ball and run with it. All this leads to an always surprising and highly satisfying journey back to when metal was epic and those that performed it were considered icons.
When I interviewed Chris Caffery he told me that Frontiers approached him about doing an album with Ripper. The added benefit is having Roy Z at the helm producing.
I’d highly recommend this record with fantastic vocals and catchy riffs.
To order Spirits of Fire click here
For more information on Spirits of Fire visit their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SpiritsOfFireBand/
