Legendary comedian Foster Brooks told a joke at a Dean Martin roast where, claiming to have served as a tailgunner with man of the hour Jimmy Stewart, he said that Jimmy offered him a bonus: every time he took out some Messerschmitts, Foster would get a mess'a'Schlitz. It's a lucky thing that the alcoholic part of his routine was just an act, for one could well go thirsty trying to shoot down the sophomore album by MESSERSCHMITT.

"Consumed By Fire" launches with "Fairchild," a song near to the band's origins. A vintage sound gives plenty of clues as to what these musicians were listening to as westdeutsch youngsters, and the lyrics give a local's take on the Remscheid A-10 crash of 1988. The songs stay with the older feel while giving it a little more gas, and by "The Vanishing Strains" the band has definitely found its legs. This track has a lot of depth to it, employing their usual classical metal along with the speed and thrash tandem that is hard to lose with, and there are also much heavier bits involved, with a taste of progressive mixed in there as well.

The speed dial goes up and down and when "Hematic Wrath" comes on, you might be a little thrown off by the positive cadence of it, especially if you listen to the words. Like most drug experiences, this song also manages to peter out just when you've gotten used to it. Finally, coming on like the morning after, the album ends with "And I Crave To Die," the band's longest track to date. Serving as a proper outro, this is another of their classical metal tracks, daring themselves to slow to a walk before going for the sprint again. Perhaps ramming speed is more like it, considering the lyrics read like a suicide note.

And let's hope that is not the case. There is a lot of upward potential for something as well built as this MESSERSCHMITT. They certainly have made some worthy metal music with this release, however something about it feels decidedly average. The first three tunes are passable but mostly unremarkable and it takes a few tries for the band to find its own sound. But for the boilerplate tunes like "Pyschoqueen" or the title track, there is something like "Arms Of Havoc," which provides a balance to it while also putting forward a solid entry into metal's 2020 playlist.

The band's history reaches across the past ten years. A pair of demos and a debut album have led the band to this point, the proverbial crossroad between the second and third albums, and it is a rather sizable crossroad. As the genre is concerned, "Consumed By Fire" appears for all intents and purposes as a working metal album; it's fast, it's loud, and it's a lean forty minutes. If they want their third album to lead to a fourth, if they want to play a festival's main stage, and if they want to spend a half-decade building it up, then MESSERSCHMITT had better spread its wings and fly.