firenote firenote

Released: 28 May 2009 Label: IVK music

Do you know what Finnish bands are good at? (Apart from drinking vast quantities of alcohol of course.) They’re good at being compared with other Finnish bands. Every vaguely love-metal type band from the land of Father Christmas gets compared to HIM, regardless of whether or not they were formed years before Valo penned his first tune. Power metallers have to match up to Stratovarius. So Firenote, keeping up with traditions, will simply have to be compared to none other than the glorious Brother Firetribe, despite starting before them. The 80s styled AOR hair metal, with fire in the title, and even CD artwork not unlike The Tribe, really do nothing to prevent such comparisons.

Formed in 2004 by vocalist Ricky and keyboardist Hammond, the Finns with “the attitude of a stadium” have come up with a fine feast of catchy AOR melodic rock on their debut album. Their love of bands such as Europe and Whitesnake are worn proudly on their sleeves as they belt out sing-along choruses with big hooks, often sweetened up by the 80s sounding keys, and backed up with excellent harmonies galore.

There’s a good spectrum of tracks on the album, making it diverse enough to be interesting, but still sounding like an album that gels. Sara La Fountain appears to be named after a Finnish celebrity chef and sees the band wanting to get between her thighs! Speed Freak rattles along furiously, not letting its title down with some great riffing. My Love Will Never Die is a beautiful piano-based power ballad showing off vocalist Ricky’s ability, as opposed to his usual quite high pitched performance... wave those lighters and mobiles in the air. She Stole my Speedos is a slightly tongue-in-cheek composition, but sums up the Finnish sense of humour. It’s also so goddamn catchy that you can’t help sing along despite the rather ridiculous and uncool title.

Firenote want to be hi-octane and larger than life. Their well produced debut album bodes well. A must-have for current fans of Brother Firetribe and H.E.A.T. and those that live for Firefest each year.

by Lynn Wyeth