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Fireborn Reflections Review by Gary Hill I have heard of this band being called "hard rock," rather than metal. There is some merit to that. I think this fits better under the heavy metal heading, though. Whatever you call it, though, this is hook laden, heavy music with great female vocals. I'm definitely reminded of Doro and Warlock a lot of the time. This is such a strong album from start to finish. This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2023 Volume 4 More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2023.

Track by Track Review

Young Heart Dies The riffing that opens this is so strong. They launch out into a killer metal romp from there. I'm reminded a bit of Warlock. This has some definite mainstream hard rock angles to its arrangement, but it's full-on metal. I dig the guitar soloing a lot.

As Long As I Love You Dramatic old school metal vibes bring this one into being. The cut powers out with more classy crunchy music. It's another that, with a bit different arrangement, would be more hard rocker than heavy metal.

Angel In Need The same combination of heavy metal and hard rock is present here. The multiple layer vocal arrangement is great. This has some particularly passionate vocals.

The Eye Of A Hurricane Pounding in with fire and power, this is another killer metal stomper with mainstream hard rock in the mix.

Deep Blue Water There is a definite power-ballad vibe to this cut. I'm reminded of both WASP and Warlock on this song. It's another meaty number.

Proud And Ashamed With a vocal opening, this works out to some particularly mean and meaty metal from there. This is a real powerhouse. It still has some solid hooks, too.

Guide You Home Intricate acoustic guitar gets things going here. This is ballad that has a lot of passion and musical complexity built into it.

Pack Of Wolves They fire back out into fierce metal from there. This isn't a big departure from some of the rest here, but just another killer slab of cool metal. The wolf howls near the end are a little distracting, though.

You Seem So Far While this perhaps leans further on the hard rock end of the spectrum, there is still enough metal to land it there. The mellower, more melodic movements, make it a close call, though.

Ferryman Coming in somewhat furious, this drops back to a more melodic, and nearly balladic mode. It powers up for the chorus, and it stays in more rocking zones from there. This is another that really makes me think of Warlock and Doro.

Punchline This is fiercer than some of the rest here. It's a powerhouse metal rocker. A section mid track features vocals over the top of the rhythm section. It gets crunch guitar layered over that as it works back out toward the song proper.

Malicious Rose Another classy metal rocker, this is again the kind of thing one expects from Doro. It has some smoking hot guitar work, too.

Done With You More hard rock based at times, this has plenty of metal built into it, too. That's particularly true, too. This isn't a huge change, but when it's this good, it doesn't need to be.

Set Off This is a great blend of hard rocker and metal stomper. It's also a good choice for album closer.

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