Posted on: March 30, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

The hard-rock approach done by The Blackfire Revelation really seems to portend well for the band before the band starts off their true approach, which is essentially screaming over whatever the rest of the band mates decided what would sound good (did I mention that these bandmates had no idea what their other halves were doing). What really hinders The Blackfire Revelation are the extremely long times that they allow their tracks to run; the average length of each of these songs hovers right at 5 minutes. The sheer lack of material that the band imbues each track with makes for much in the way of repetition. This repetition also is magnified by the fact that The Blackfire Revelation really only is one individual, John Fields who plays guitars and bass (and does the vocals, as well). To stave off total repetition, John involves Hank Haney on drums (and Sean Yseult on bass during the last track). What passes for music on this album is middling rock at best, as many of the extended guitar solos line themselves at altars of Slash and Jimmy Page but maintain little to no relevance to the rest of the track. What follows in tracks like “Preach To The Choir” really makes sense: long, drawn out guitars with uninspired solos and Corrosion of Conformity-esque vocals.

The Blackfire Revelation is one of many retro-rock bands that have spent most of their formative years listening to Led Zeppelin, but really cannot find a proper outlet to release their pent-up frustration, instead making a Frankenstein’s monster of their seventies influences. Should The Blackfire Revelation pick up a few other bandmates and really allow John’s vocals to extrude themselves from the mess of the guitar/bass/drum dynamic, the band would be much more convincing in their music. Tracks like “Second Time Around” seem to be mixed separate from the rest of “Gold and Guns on 51”, in that the on-track static to be found virtually subsumes any music on the disc. The guitars do coalesce well during the track, and this is practically the only time on this disc that the band really achieves the whole seventies sound. The mastering of this disc is really not to blame for what was deposited on each track by the band, but if John cuts down on each track’s length and allows some new blood onto eir own project, chances are that this could be a perfectly solid, ironic seventies-rock band like The Darkness.

Top Track: Second Time Around

Rating: 4.8/10

The Blackfire Revelation – Gold And Guns on 51 / 2004 Southern Reconstruction Records / http://www.blackfirerevelation.com / Reviewed 24 March 2005

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