 Rocky Kramer
 Firestorm
 Review by Gary Hill

First, I'd like to talk about the classification of this album. It really could have gone under heavy metal. There is plenty of metal here. The thing is, it's also very progressive rock oriented, and has a lot of classical music built into it. So, ultimately, I landed it under prog. With that out of the way, though, let's address the music. Taking away everything but the instrumental work, this is nearly a perfect album. It's wide-ranging and has some very complex and developed music. The only issue here, really, comes to the lyrics and some of the little skit bits built into it. Some of the lyrics feel a bit childish, and some of the skits cartoonish. Don't get me wrong, there are some lyrics that work better, but some are very immature. To me that doesn't fit with the caliber of the music here. I honestly wish that some of the songs were just left as instrumentals and some of those skits had been left off entirely. It would have been a stronger disc that way. As it is, this is very strong. With those changes, it could have been nearly a masterpiece.
This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2019 Volume 5. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2019.
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