BROTHER FIRETRIBE: Number One Ep (MELODIC HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Five years ago, we left Brother Firetribe at the peak of their artistry with the excellent “Feel The Burn.” This marked both the arrival of Roope Riihijärvi, replacing the legendary Emppu Vuorinen (Nightwish) on guitar, and a fruitful collaboration with Jimmy Westerlund (One Desire, Ancara, Sturm Und Drang, Cain's Offering...). After such a success, expectations were high for the Finnish quintet, and it seemed that they would soon be rewarded with the release of the single “Thunder Rising” in 2021, a new melodic fragmentation bomb. Unfortunately, no new album has come along to satisfy us since then, with Tomppa Nikulainen and his band content to offer us a few isolated tracks sparingly.

Fortunately, each release has been of high quality, while the combo has also teamed up with Joonas Parkkonen (ex-Santa Cruz) and Ilkka Herkman (Lordi, Santa Cruz, Reckless Love...) for another fruitful collaboration. While “Number One” is released as the fifth single in as many years, it is accompanied by an EP featuring all of its predecessors as well as another new track (“How Long Until Tomorrow”) and a live acoustic version of “Bring On The Rain,” which appears on Feel The Burn. While this short work may not be enough to completely satisfy our appetite, it at least has the merit of bringing together compositions that have proven that Brother Firetribe has remained at the top of its genre for five years, starting with its latest album.

This “Number One EP” also allows us to enjoy the two sides of the band corresponding to each of its artistic partnerships. The tracks produced and composed with Jimmy Westerlund are the most powerful and incorporate a few modern touches in the form of cleverly distributed electro elements (“Number One”). The tracks resulting from the sessions with Parkkonen and Herkman lean more towards 1980s AOR, close to the band's early days, and sometimes reminiscent of Reckless Love's excellent “Turborider.” The riffs are driven more by keyboards but lose none of their energy or catchiness. Indeed, despite these specific markers, the whole remains coherent with consistently unstoppable choruses and invariably dazzling solos. As for the cover of “Bring On The Rain,” while it is more incidental, it nevertheless passes the test of the acoustic version, which is unforgiving of minor compositions.

Beyond the frustration caused by its format, “Number One EP” is nonetheless a compendium of the best of Scandinavian melodic hard rock. By surrounding themselves with Finnish production and songwriting talent, Brother Firetribe has succeeded in making this collection of finely crafted melodic gems, bursting with contagious energy, a must-have. While it reinforces the authors' dominance of the northern landscape of the style, it nevertheless obliges them to quickly follow up with a true opus. - Official website

BROTHER FIRETRIBE

NUMBER ONE EP

AUTOPRODUCTION

MELODIC HARD ROCK