Bonfire – The Räuber

artist website

impulse buy

LZ Records
Produced by Claus Lessman & Hans Ziller

Bonfire’s reputation, perhaps unfairly so, is that of a soft rock band. A band of late-’80s Whitesnake-isms and Def Leppard melodies. On the evidence of The Räuber, that would certainly seem moderately unfair.

But only moderately. Following the fairground intro title track Bells of Freedom is a fast, ultra-heavy (by melodic rock standards) rocker that sounds essentially like a heavy metal Gotthard, seemingly dispelling any concerns that Bonfire are a soft band. Following that Refugee of Fate is straight out of mid-paced Saxon territory (but Claus Lessman really does sound like Gotthard’s Steve Lee). Tribal chanting (think stereotypical cinema Zulus) occupies The Oath before the all-German Blut Und Tod continues the heavy feel of the previous two tracks (and the chanting from The Oath).

However, it’s with Love Don’t Lie that Bonfire’s reputation begins to catch up with them – while not straight out of the Whitesnake/Def Leppard book of sugary rock balladry, it’s a very Scorpions-esque sparse acoustic melody with a background electric in the later stages and a suitably grand solo. As ballads go, it’s a very good one, but it’s a hint at what’s to come.

But first Black Night provides a final burst of heaviness. Again a Scorpions influence in the intro and a Gotthard-esque main riff combine for an excellent groove and a sing-a-long chorus that just manages to evade cliché. Which is more than can be said for the next trio of tracks. Hip Hip Hurray (complete with spelling mistake) is pretty self explanatory, and while it has some good guitar work and a reasonable groove, it’s beyond silly. Then Do You Still Love Me? and the horrible Let Me Be Your Water stray right across sugary rock balladry and out the other side, making a beeline for Celine Dion.

Lass Die Toten Schlafen has a strange feel to it. It has a good balance of lighter melody and rock guitars, but sounds like an English song sung in German, rather than a song written in German. The massive riff and soloing half way through are worth the price of admission alone, though. The Good Die Young is incredibly reminiscent of the KISS classic Heaven’s On Fire, Time is Def Leppard-style good-time rock and Father’s Return is a strange, dark, slow outro track which is unexpectedly in German, despite its English title.

The excellent-value-for-money disc closes with three bonus tracks. The acoustic version of Love Don’t Lie is barely different from the regular version for the most part, but with no electric solo it loses the impact of the last part – the acoustic solo in it’s place is good, but just not the same. Similarly the acoustic version of Do You Still Love Me? isn’t much different, especially as it actually retains the electric lead melodies of the original and only replaces the electric rhythms. Finally the German version of Hip Hip Hurray has the same chorus as the English version, given that the term is languageless, but the verses are in German and just like Lass Die Toten Schlafen they sound like an English song being sung in German. Again the great mid-section shines.

The Räber is a solid album and while the early promise of the first few tracks isn’t quite maintained later on there are no songs which stand out as being absolutely unlistenable (although Let Me Be Your Water is close) and there’s enough variation to keep the interest up.

“ excellent-value-for-money ”

Tracklist: The Räuber / Bells of Freedom / Refugee of Fate / The Oath / Blut Und Tod / Love Don’t Lie / Black Night / Hip Hip Hurray / Do You Still Love Me? / Let Me Be Your Water / Lass Die Toten Schlafen / The Good Die Young / Time / Father’s Return / Love Don’t Lie (Acoustic Mix) / Do You Still Love Me? (Acoustic Mix) / Hip Hip Hurray (German Version)

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Hard Rock, Bonfire