Fires of Babylon

publisher

impulse buy

Metal Heaven
Produced by Lou St. Paul

Winters Bane guitarist and primary songwriter Lou St. Paul impressed Metal Heaven A&R chief Georg Siegl with his writing and playing on his most recent album Redivivus that Siegl asked him to write some material in a classic ’80s metal sound and form a band to record it, the result is Fires of Babylon.

St. Paul’s hand-picked line-up obviosuly features himself on guitar, plus ex-Death bassist Kelly Conlon, former Annihilator drummer Bob Falzano and power metal vocal legend Rob Rock. The resultant album falls a little short of the ’80s metal bracket and closer to the same ultra-heavy metal section Redivivus sits in, with the addition of some extra keyboards (played by St. Paul) and Rock’s

While St. Paul’s excellent guitar playing is the focal point of the album, and Rock’s vocals are considerably better here than on his recent solo album Garden of Chaos, the biblical themes (Rock’s influence, no doubt) of the songs wear very thin very quickly for me.

The only technical problem with Fires of Babylon is that it sounds somewhat under-produced. Rock’s vocals are a little distant and I don’t think the unequaled heaviness of St. Paul’s riffs (Lazarus Rising) has been fully realised. That’s a small grumble though. The unrelenting references to “the power of god” and so forth is a lot harder to come to terms with if you’re not a fan of Christian metal, which this essentially is.

There tend to be three views on Christian metal. A) The subject matter gets on your nerves and after a few songs, B) the subject matter isn’t important or prominent enough to detract from the genuine metal music, C) You’re actually Christian, and a metal fan, so all is well. I’m in A. Others might not be, so consider your own position before picking this one up, but what I will say is musically it’s flawless.

“ unequaled heaviness ”

Tracklist: Falling To Pieces / Devilution / When The Kingdom Comes / Lake of Fire / Holy Resurrection / Going Through Changes / Lazarus Rising / Revolution Coming / Generation of Destruction / Castles Are Burning