Review - Gus G.- I Am The Fire (Century Media Records)

For some people Gus G is Firewind so why bring out a solo effort at all. It's been a couple of years since Few Against Many so why no new album. Others will be curious to see what this actually sounds like. Is it Firewind with different vocalists. Well mostly no. People expecting this to sound like his main band will be sorely disappointed. If anything this is a hard rock album. Tracks like opener My Will Be Done and Blame It On Me sound like something off a Cinderella or Black N Blue album. The title track is more modern sounding. Long Way Down and Just Can't Let Go are great big ballads. Eyes Wide Open sounds like something Glenn Hughes was involved in. Summer Days is Journey. There are two instrumentals, both fast and in your face but they feel a little out of place on this. These are the tracks that could be off a Firewind album. It's as if he had to put something like these on there.

   It's well written and the performances are superb. Gus's playing is incredible and shows a lot more flexibility here then many may have thought he could achieve. He lets the strength of the songs shine through and it's not a wankfest like an Yngwie album where the singing gets in the way of him going off. As an album though it just doesn't flow because of all the guest vocalists. Sure the singers he has roped in fit the style of the song like Mats Leven on the opening track or Jeff Scott Soto on Summer Days. Albums like this tend not to work as people inevitably pick their favorite tracks based on who's singing what. Iommi's first solo album suffered because of this and the same with Jake E. Lee's recent Red Dragon Cartel release. Remember how strong Iommi's follow up Fused was, that's because Glenn Hughes sang on all of it. A solid release but I would love to hear just one vocalist next time.

 http://www.gusgofficial.com/