Rock Blog #38: January 2025 summary

 Hello, it's the last day of the first month of 2025, and as I haven't written any reviews this month, I thought I'd do a quick summary of 2025 so far. 

I just listened to the new W.E.T. track "Where Are The Heroes Now", the second song released from the next album. It's a good song, but just like the previous one ("Believer"), it doesn't have blow me away like the best W.E.T. songs have done. Hopefully these songs work better in the context of the album.

Only a handful of new albums have been released so far, and I've checked out a couple of them. First up, one of my all-time favourite bands, BONFIRE. Yes, back in 1989 I spent hours drawing their logo to the back of my denim jacket, while listening to their first three albums. They're all classics in my books, and the band has released decent material during their latter years as well. The recent remakes of the aforementioned classic albums were totally unnecessary though.

"Higher Ground" (RRRR) is a good album, with some classic Bonfire elements mixed with a heavier vibe.  At their heaviest the band remind me of Black Sabbath and Accept, which isn't really what I want to hear from Bonfire. Most of the material is melodic and catchy enough, with the anthemic "I Died Tonight" and "I Will Rise" as my favourites. The ballad "When Love Comes Down" sounds like a vintage Bonfire ballad, offering a bit of a breather among the metallized new Bonfire songs.

WILDNESS have been steadily working on their craft, releasing one decent album after another, and I feel that "Avenger" (RRRRr) is their best effort so far. It's full of hook-filled, big hard rock songs, some of which are more in the power metal territory. The title track and especially "Stand Your Ground" are two such tracks, but strangely enough they don't stick out among the more AOR-friendly material. 

My favourite songs include "Broken Heart", "Wasted Time" and "Poison Ivy", but all in all, this is a very solid album with no real weak spots among its' eleven tracks. The first contender for "The Best Album Of 2025"!

LANDFALL's "Wide Open Sky" (RRR) is described as a mixture of Journey, Extreme, Dokken and White Lion. I don't know, I do hear the Journey influence, but to my ears they sound like a progressive, more complicated version of that band - Journey meets Rush maybe? These Brazilian guys are obviously super-talented musicians, but as always, it's the songs that matter the most to me, and the ones on this album leave me a bit cold.

I've got a few albums still to be checked out (The Night Flight Orchestra, Enbound, The Big Thrill, The Ferrymen), but I'll get back to those later. As for new singles, Wig Wam released their "Human Fire" recently, and while it's darker than some of their party-type of tracks, I do like it. The next album from Perfect Plan promises to be a good one, the two singles released so far have been very good, especially the latest one, "The Heart Of A Lion".