In my humble opinion 1987’s ‘Fireworks’ is one of the best Hard Rock albums of that decade and any reminder of that is most welcome. Here you get six of those classic tracks amongst the nine live offerings from the set (plus two from their debut album ‘Don’t Touch the Light’ and ‘Sword in the Stone’ from the soundtrack to 1989’s ‘Shocker’ movie). All music then from their first two releases and nothing from the 14 studio records that followed.
Bonfire though have been here before ‘Live! The Best’ (their first live album) had most of the album on there, and 2011 saw the release of “Fireworks Still Alive’ a great album with Firework’s vocalist Claus Lessmann taking vocal duties on an album which included the whole album and more (well except ‘Cold Days’ which was an additional track on the US album but never on the original European release).
This release therefore you could argue is just a shortened version of that 2011 outing but with new man Alexx Stahl on vocals. But that of course though is selling it short – this is a great document of a great show from one of the biggest Metal Festivals in the world and so doubly great for fans who were there.
It’s a great set, delivered wonderfully well and Stahl does a great job even if for me he’s no Lessmann, a man who ranks as one of my favourite ever European Hard Rock vocalists. We kick off with ‘In the Beginning’ which of course is just an extended intro the the real opener ‘Ready 4 Reaction’ a song that never gets old and which along with ‘American Nights’ and especially ‘Sweet Obsession’ (one of the best songs of the decade) prove why these guys should have been far bigger than they were.
For fans the added bonus here are the four bonus tracks: ‘Praying 4 A Miracle’ (radio edit), a song from 2017’s ‘Byte the Bullet’ album; their cover of Jethro Tull’s ‘Locomotive Breath’ (radio edit) from the same album; and re-recorded versions of ‘Sweet Obsession’ and ‘American Nights’ with Stahl on vocals. The DVD also offers four video clips of these tracks. If you want more then the first pressing of all three physical formats (DVD, CD and LP) are hand-signed by the band. Great stuff indeed!
Track list: 1.In the Beginning, 2.Ready 4 Reaction, 3.Never Mind, 4.Don´t touch the light, 5.American Nights, 6.Give it a try, 7.Sword and Stone, 8.SDI, 9.Sweet Obsession, 10.Champion; Bonus Tracks: 11.Praying 4 A Miracle, 12.Locomotive Breath, 13. American Nights (2019), 14. Sweet Obsession (2019)