Sometimes a band will surprise you in a very positive way. That is definitely the case with HANGFIRE. This band from Washington State in the USA are bringing us their debut album “Burn” and that is exactly what it does most of the time. No, not all the time, but I will get back to that. They play Melodic Rock mixed with pure Heavy Metal and everything in between. That they have some future was recognised by Rottweiler Records, a fact that makes me smile.

The first thing to mention, or should I say the first thing you notice is the voice of singer extraordinaire Jenea Fiore. In the emotional opening song “Hunger” she is demonstrating to us and the whole world what a brilliant voice she has. But I have to warn you, it is also her best and most impressive performance of the whole album. I like her, as well as the band, best when they go for the Heavy Metal songs. Very uplifting riffs with good and solid pounding of the drums with the bass being very practical right between those two. Examples are “Thunder”, “Headspin” and the title track. That already gets my heart racing, but that becomes almost orgasmic pleasure when Jenea Fiore adds on her inspirational way of singing.

It's not that she isn’t as good a singer in the slower songs, but the nasal effect of her voice comes to the front a bit more, and she just doesn’t sparkle as much. Then again, she still sounds really good on those songs. I have to say that HANGFIRE does have the ability to write good softer and slower songs, but I would have loved a few more Heavy songs, where I feel that “Burn” does exactly what it says on the tin.

Altogether I can only conclude that as a debut album “Burn” is something that HANGFIRE can build on for the future. I reckon that when they get even better in their collaboration and write even stronger songs that they will be a very difficult force to ignore. So, I do hope that the record company will have the foresight and courage to release this album worldwide in different formats. Now, if only the Rottweiler Records albums of BROTALITY would physically be released here in Europe as well, I would be an even happier puppy than I currently am after reviewing the very pleasant and satisfactory HANGFIRE album that “Burn” without a shadow of a doubt is.