FIREWALL

I ran into this band by accident, had never heard of it. I'm totally unfamiliar with their previous older work. So i did not know what to expect from their latest album "Firewall". First of all: i don't agree with the 'Crossover Prog' style they have been labelled with. In my humble opinion this is a more Heavy Prog/Hard Rock style with symphonic elements. In general i think there are not much progressive influences in the music. Most songs have a modernised hard rock feeling. They are not composed very complicated, but there is a nice airy feeling, enhanced by the beautiful guitar and strong keyboard play. Especially the guitar play lifts the music to another level.

The first song, Welcome to the Show, kicks in wit a heavy rythm and soon Reinhard Schröter picks up the vocals with a voice that sounds as a polished version of RAY WILSON. When the guitar and the keyboards join in, thbe music really grabs me. Save the World takes over with the same nice hard rock edge.

Then there is a love ballad-ish song, Love in Vain. This one doesn't stand out for me. Into the Moments, All This Time, Firewall and Virgin Zone all go into the direction of a poprock song, sounds very nice buyt nothing special though. Thirst in my Heart starts with a short chorus. This is a more relaxed song with a saxophone playing halfway.

The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back is a nice song wih beautyful mood changes. Then comes my favourite track of the album: the live version of Look at Your Neighbour. With almost seven minutes the longest track and it is enjoyable every minute of it. Ramses lets us hear that they can play live as tight and vibrant as in the recording studio. The guitar and keybords really stand out here. Not complicated, straightforward and very very good. After three minutes a wonderful guitar solo starts off. With my eyes closed i can even imagine that i am listening to an early number of URIAH HEEP. Nice!

The X-Mas Song sounds as mellow as the title suggests. The next song, Back to the Glades, again really stands out. It is all instrumental and has a pretty space rock sound.

Thre last song is a 'soft version' of Look at Your Neighbour. Here the vocals are from Herbert Natho, the original vocalist from the seventies. My suggestion would be to skip that song. I am not familiar with his performances in the past, but his voice does not fit the rest of the album.

Overall i would say that Ramses has made a nice flowing album with two strong tracks to start with: Welcome to the Show and Save the World. Then the music becomes more into the direction of poprock. That all changes with The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back and the live version of Look at Your Neighbour. It would have been better to drop The X-Mas Song and the short version of Look at Your Neighbour. Then the cd could have ended strong with first the instrumental Back to the Glades, followed by the live Look at Your Neighbour. 3,5 stars from me, rounded up to four because i really enjoyed te better tracks.

I was reading recently that, whereas clothing, hair and even musical fashions shifted dramatically during the period from the 1960s to 1990s, in the last 20 years the amplitude of those shifts has narrowed, to the point where a picture of people from 2003 might not reveal a lot of clues around when it was taken. While I cannot deign to speak for any of these trends among the younger musicians, it seems like no time passed between Germany's RAMSES' 2001 and 2014 studio albums. Even the lineup is almost identical.

I suppose in this prog sprinkled concoction of hard rockers and ballads alluding to their keyboard laden past, a few extra pounds are coaxed onto the scale, and if I had to pick one over the other, "Firewall" would probably win, being more compelling more often, even if once again some of the excess baggage takes the form of live and alternate versions and yet another brief appearance of their original vocalist who presumably was middle aged even back then? I have this idea that maybe a live album even from the 1970s would be somehow more satisfying than these non bonus tracks.

Regardless, the album breaks any shackles right away with the menacing "Welcome to the Show", one of several that throws shadows back to the 1980s - think "Twilight Zone" by GOLDEN EARRING or "Jeopardy" by GREG KIHN BAND, along with more recent outings by fellow German's ANYONE's DAUGHTER" but more satisfying. It establishes the focus on melodic at times rhythm-heavy rock with fat key and guitar solos that don't really move the goalposts but lay out the band's confidence as instrumentalists. "Save the World" is every bit as powerful and impactful, with a wonderful reappearing synth riff that pays homage to their younger selves as well as their contemporaries at that time.

Other high points are the title track and the relatively sprawling "Straw that Broke the Camel's Back", with more hooks than a wardrobe stylist's closet and a blistering lead guitar solo. A lesser known instrumental originally on "Light Fantastic" (1981) is reprised with a slightly different name ("Back to the Glades") and is fine but, like the Xmas song and the aforementioned added tracks, doesn't really bolster the end product.

While "Firewall" doesn't block out or hide its affiliation with AOR and its ilk, it resumes this long lived collective's grasp of a credible style for our times that might even tickle a few of the less hardened among us.