Few months after their successful concerts in Greece, the legendary hardrockers Bonfire, return to the spotlight, this time for their 12th studio album. Although I hadn’t heard some of their previous studio albums, their recent concert and the absolute positive vibe they transmitted, made me get into them again. Indeed, this proved to be a quite good choice, as “Branded” is a very good album, consisted of melodic hard rock, fulfilling our greatest expectations from this band nowadays. As expected, the band’s sound is pure melodic hard rock, as heaviest staff like “Hot To Rock” doesn’t exist in the band’s discography for many years. Well, this isn’t a bad thing at all for us, as the mid tempo hard rock, Bonfire offer us, is impressive enough,as proved in many of the album’s songs like “Just Follow The Rainbow”(surely a must song for the next tours), and “Loser’s Lane” that reminded me the classic hit “Sweet Obsession”. But also the ballads uplift the album’s quality, with the best being “Hold Me Now” and “Let It Grow”. Definitely, there are some fillers in the cd, however this is nothing more than a minor detail, compared to the satisfaction you get from a new good Bonfire album. Michael Bormann’s unique voice has always been a personal favorite and along with the very good compositions made me enjoy an album, that I wouldn’t possibly have listened if I hadn’t watched them a few months ago.

Unfortunately the “trends” of the new millennium don’t allow to great old bands to be on the front pages, and as a result even their fans ignore their new releases and all the news, despite the fact that they deserve so much more. Thankfully, the web provides the opportunity to everyone, to explore groups that are completely buried by the miserable music press. Bonfire is one of these groups, and if you have never heard them before, you can start with their two first legendary L.P.s, and may continue with “Branded”. The fans have already bought it…GOOD CHOICE!