With Hans Ziller continuing Bonfire without singer Claus Lessmann and doing a pretty fine job of it so far the question was always, with him supposedly not wanting to tour, what Claus would get up to musically? The answer (so soon after Bonfire’s ‘Pearls’ March release) is team up with Michael Voss (Mad Max, Casanova, Bonfire, Michael Schenker), Francis Buchholz (Scorpions, Michael Schenker) Jaded Heart’s Robby Boebel and Frontline’s Axel Kruse originally under the name ‘Supremacy’ but now rechristened ‘Phantom 5’.
The answer is ‘Phantom 5’ and an album that sounds like vintage Bonfire around the time of the classics ‘Fireworks’, ‘Point Blank’ (when Voss was onboard) and ‘Knockout’. In short this is all you could want from the voice of Bonfire – 11 tracks of the quality to evoke those days when Bonfire looked like the next big thing in Melodic Hard Rock and certainly were for those of us that caught them on any of those tours.
Kicking off impressively with the excellent ‘All the Way’ and ‘Blue Dog’ it’s the mid-tempo ‘Someday’ that really seals the deal and the quality of the opening is further underlined by the harder-edged ‘Don’t Touch the Night’ (a song that of course echoes the title of that first Bonfire release).
But of course it doesn’t end there: ‘Renegade’ is another mid-tempo rocker that simmers with restrained power and has a real Scorpions-like feel to it, whilst ‘Flying High’ adds some more grunt and ups the guitar before the mood changes for the anthemic ballad ‘Since You’re Gone’. It’s just what Bonfire was so adept at: the steel and the silk, slipping seamlessly from stadium rocker to ‘lights aloft’ ballads and it works just as well for Phantom 5.
One of many highlights is ‘They Won’t come Back’, a powerful mid-paced rocker which namechecks some of hard rock’s lost stars. It is immediately followed by two of our favourites – the real hard rocking ‘Frontline’ and the sweeping melodic ‘We Both Had Our Time’. That leaves us only with the huge sound of ‘Why’ which really pulls out all the stops to recapture the magic that made Bonfire of a certain vintage such a huge force.
This is a great big album, vintage Bonfire with a slightly harder touch, huge guitars, great vocals and some very fie melodies. It would be one of the best Melodic Hard Rock releases of any year.
TRACKLIST
All the Way
Blue Dog
Someday
Don’t Touch the Night
Renegade
Flying High
Since You’re Gone
They Won’t Come Back
Frontline
We Both Had Our Time
Why
