Burning Point - Salvation By Fire


Year of Release: 2001
Label: Limb Music Products
Catalog Number: LMP 0110-35
Format: CD
Total Time: 50:43:00

You can hardly go wrong with Finland when it comes to metal - power, progressive, death, doom, gothic, extreme - they seriously have it all. And now another one rears it un-ugly head with Burning Point's Salvation By Fire.

Coming from the same town as Sentenced (the northern Finnish city of Oulu) you'd expect these guys to play some sort of suicidal metal but Burning Point play a mix of power and melodic metal with a bit of traditional metal thrown in for good measure. Salvation By Fire (with an exceptional cover - although most of LMP's bands have a high aesthetic quotient) features mid to up-tempo tracks rampant with over the top soloing by the twin guitars of Pete Ahonen (who also handles the vocals) and Jukka Kyrö. In fact, it is Pete's handling of the vocals that is the disc's weakest point. There doesn't seem to be a lot of variety or range in his lower key, Rob Rock-like vocals and whilst there is little accent in his voice, he comes across as strong and resonant. His shortcomings can be heard during the verses (an example is the opening track "Under The Dying Sun") while the choruses, having a lot of power, become slightly repetitive after 11 tracks. His guitar work, along with Kyrö's, creates a menagerie of twin guitar sounds ("Signs Of Danger" and "Fall Of The Kingdom"). For those interested, the band are also joined by Eternal Tears of Sorrow keyboardist Pasi Hiltula whose work is more subtle than on some metal releases.

The biggest impact this CD has, apart from the front cover, are the catchy songs contained within. Subsequent listens has raised the bar on this disc as my first listen wouldn't have rated them overly highly. For a comparison, there aren't that many, although their sound is still familiar. Their melodies are similar to that of fellow Finnish band Myon (who released Heaven's Garden through Noise Records), especially on tracks such as "The One" and "Higher," although Burning Point are not as weak and they are significantly heavier in all departments.

Burning Point's Salvation By Fire is an average slice of metal in a market far too overcrowded. If this was released a few years ago, it may have been given a higher score but today only the strong survive.

[This review originally appeared November 2002 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]


Tracklisting:
The Burning Point (0:58) / Under The Dying Sun (4:32) / Lake Of Fire (5:50) / Fall Of Thy Kingdom (4:25) / Higher (4:10) / Black Star (4:57) / Stealer Of Light (4:59) / The One (3:36) / Signs Of Danger (4:33) / Salvation By Fire (7:37)

Musicians:
Pete Ahonen - vocals, lead, acoustic, rhythm guitars
Jukka Kyr? - rhythm, lead, acoustic guitars
Toni 'J?pe' Kansanoja - bass, additional backing vocals
Jari Kaiponen - drums

Guest:

Pasi Hiltula - keyboards

Discography:
Salvation By Fire (2001)
Feeding The Flames (2003)

Genre: Melodic Metal

Origin FI

Added: January 17th 2005
Reviewer: Gary Carson
Score:
Hits: 2641
Language: english

  

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