Burning Point - Burned Down The Enemy

Published Jan. 05 2007

*=Staff's pick	Parasite* Heart Of Gold* Dawn Of The Ancient War Hell Awaits* From The Beginning Of It All Icebound Deceiver Eye For An Eye To Hell And Back* Against The Madness Of Time Burned Down The Enemy

Genre	Heavy/Power Metal	Pete Ahonen	Vocals
Tracks	11	Pete Ahonen	Guitar
Runningtime	58 Min.	Pekka Kolivuori	Guitar
Label	Metal Heaven	Jukka Jokikokko	Bass
Release	19 Jan. 2007	Jari Kaiponen	Drums
Country	Finland	Jussi Ontero	Keyboard
Similar artists	Thunderstone, Nocturnal Rites, Dream Evil

After struggling with legal problems towards their old record label, Burning Point is finally ready to unleash their third metallic release on their new label Metal Heaven. Almost four years have passed since their previous effort Feeding The Flames, an album that suffered a bit from being uneven but the best tracks were simply put awesome. The development the band made on that particular album in comparison to the mediocre debut album, entitled Salvation By Fire, was remarkable. Has the development of the band continued on this new offering? Well stay tuned for details in that matter…

The album opens in the best of ways, Parasite proves that the somewhat long absence hasn't affected the band at all; it's a fantastic song with great melodies and driving rhythms in good old Burning Point fashion. Up next is Heart Of Gold where the focus is set on melody rather than heaviness, and this piece is in possession of a chorus that you can't get rid of, once you've heard it seems to be stuck forever. I also have to mention that the calm verse is quite similar to Queensrÿche's tune The Mission from their masterpiece Operation:Mindcrime. Dawn Of The Ancient War reminds me a lot of the weaker tracks on Feeding The Flames, it's one of those heavy tracks in midtempo that we have heard from the band before, not by any means bad but without the strong hooks and melodies that the first two tracks spoiled us with. With Hell Awaits the pace is picked up vastly and this is a great track with tasteful usage of double kegs and a simple but efficient chorus.

After a couple of indifferent and slower compositions the tempo as well as quality is picked up again with Deceiver. Normally I have a weak spot for heavy songs in midtempo but with Burning Point the faster songs surpasses the slower ones with ease. The decrease of tempo seems to have a negative affect on the melody aspect in a strange kind of way. This thesis of mine is also consistent on the remaining tracks since To Hell And Back and Burned Down The Enemy is the best songs as well as the most speedy ones.

To sum things up, Burned Down The Enemy is great album which balances melody and heaviness in a splendid way. The album is, as its predecessor, a bit uneven but with the exception that the lows are not so low this time so to speak. The production is crystal clear and the performance is without flaws. Fans of the band have nothing to fear and everyone who's into heavy and power metal should at least consider investing in this piece of plastic.

See also review of: Feeding The Flames
See also: Song By Song Commentary

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7,5	4	8	7	7,5

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Hawk