Bonfire – Don’t Touch The Light / Point Blank / Fireworks MMXXIII
Bonfire – Don’t Touch The Light / Point Blank / Fireworks MMXXIII
AFM
Release Date: 22/09/23
Running Time: 02:22:58
Review by Simon Black
7/10
I will be honest, Bonfire completely passed me by at the time. Part of the challenge is they seemed like they were a less effective Euro counterpart to a movement at the time dominated by the US market, even though under another name they had been around in one form or another since 1972. That’s also partly a UK behavioural thing, as they certainly made their mark more widely on the continent, but over here the American bands held more sway in the 80’s, and Bonfire didn’t explode as well in the States either. Blame labels, blame management, blame whatever you feel like, but over the years their impact has grown to be a significant high-water mark in the Melodic Metal / Hard Rock genre and you can’t deny the fact that this original trio of albums did well and were the benchmark by which their brand has been measured ever since.
So why go to all the time and expense of re-recording those three classics thirty plus years later?
Well, there’s the ever-present argument about the technology available at the time (which the press release waxes lyrical about), but to be fair that’s to an extent been made superfluous by technology, as modern digital remastering and remixing techniques work wonders with old material and generating re-issues every decade (providing the original masters still exist). Also given that there’s been a retro trend with new acts trying to sound analogue going the other direction, it’s all a bit confusing. Until that is, you remember the other trend of late, which for the sake of ease of clarity I’m calling the ‘Taylor Swift Effect’, and that all comes down to the thorny subject of rights and royalties.
For recorded music, publishing royalties are split in two general directions: the ‘publishing rights’ (who wrote the composition, its music and its lyrics) and its ‘mechanical royalties’ (the recording, its physical or digital distribution). Older recordings are often locked up in a messy publishing hell, where line-up changes, dodgy deals, percentages deducted and owed in perpetuity thanks to after-the-event legal suits and a general bad taste left in the mouth across both types. This means that it’s often easier to halve the problem completely by re-recording from scratch, and re-baseline the mechanical aspects. Which when you consider that Bonfire now equates legally to sole surviving founder member Hans Ziller, makes complete sense. I don’t know the details or history, but I can imagine there’s a shit tonne of this sort of messiness in the background and given the age of the material, starting again with a shiny new young backing band and a top notch studio seems eminently sensible to me.
So, is it worth it for the paying public?
Well, not being a devotee and having little familiarity with the original versions, I guess there’s two answers. For those fans who liked those old albums, but feel that this incarnation of the band is where it’s at, then this is probably going to rock your boat, because it’s certainly a rich and lavishly polished package. The performances are solid and vocalist Dyan Mair has a great range on him, which pushes the over-polished borderling Glam feel of the originals into heavier territoty. However, the negative is that all three albums in this format are pretty much indistinguishable from one another, whereas play the lead tracks in their original formats on a streaming platform and they all have very different characters and feel to them. Running through all 36 tracks in one go is a bit unrelenting, as you don’t get the nods to stylistic evolution that you would have done between 1986 and 1989.
Personally, this was an interesting introduction, but perhaps recording these individually in different sessions would at least have added more variety to the feel. Nonetheless, the lovers are going to love it.
TRACKLISTING:
Don’t Touch The Light (MMXXIII Version)
01. The Rising
02. Starin’ Eyes
03. Hot to Rock
04. You Make Me Feel
05. Longing for You
06. Don’t Touch the Light
07. S.D.I.
08. No More
09. L.A.
Point Blank (MMXXIII Version)
01. Bang Down the Door
02. Hard on Me
03. Who’s Foolin’ Who
04. Why is It Never Enough
05. Tony’s Roulette
06. You’re Back
07. Look of Love
08. The Price of Loving You
09. Freedom is My Belief
10. Gimme Some
11. Say Goodbye
12. Never Surrender
13. (20th Century) Youth Patrol
14. Know Right Now
15. Waste No Time
Fireworks (MMXXIII Version)
01. Ready 4 Reaction
02. Never Mind
03. Sleeping All Alone
04. Champion
05. Don´t Get Me Wrong
06. Sweet Obsession
07. Rock Me Now
08. American Nights
09. Fantasy
10. Give It a Try
11. Cold Days
12. Angel in White
LINE-UP:
Dyan Mair – Vocals
Hans Ziller – Guitar
Frank Pané – Guitar
Ronnie Parkes – Bass
Fabio Allesandrini – Drums
LINKS:
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