SAFFIRE
“Taming The Hurricane”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Saffire are a hard rock band from Sweden formed in 2005, releasing their debut album ‘From Ashes To Fire’, in 2013. The band released their sophomore album ‘For The Greater Good’ in 2015, and their third album, ‘Where The Monsters Dwell’ in 2018, after which the band endured a line-up change, re-grouping and re-emering stronger, with fourth album ‘Taming The Hurricane’ a 2022 release.

After cementing their place in Swedish rock history – Sweden a country that has an incredible legacy for producing great rock (and metal) bands – Saffire make a barnstorming return to the scene with their ten song strong new album ‘Taming The Hurricane’. For fifty minutes, the band hit hard and kick harder with their brand of infectiously (near heavy metal) hard rock. Album opener ‘Triumph Of The Will’ is a thunderous heavy hitter guaranteed to grab the attention of everyone everywhere! Heads will turn and listeners will stop whatever they’re doing to take notice of the bombastic barrage that hurtles toward them. What an energy laden start! A start that powers on with the highly infectious and (even) more thunderous ‘Mr. Justified’. Reeling from the hard rock onslaught, fans will be grinning like Cheshire cats at the energy and oomph of the opening two songs – Saffire hitting the ground running…

…and hitting it very hard – earthquakes and volcanoes take a back seat, Saffire are here to shudder the ground and shake your foundations! Settling the bombastic start down a notch, ‘The Rapture’ is a mid tempo foot stomp, trampling over everything in its path – the band a relentless rock and rolling machine. Even steam rollers don’t exert this much force when flattening tarmac! And Saffire are a ginormous force in the hard rock arena – maintaining the mid tempo stomping with ‘Read Between The Lies’. Blending elegant melodious intent with the raw thunder strokes of a pneumatic drill in top gear, ‘Read Between The Lies’ will knock you flying if you’re not careful! And talking of knocking you flying – the title song ‘Taming The Hurricane’ picks up the tempo and energy, bringing a party anthem feel to the album. Very infectious and catchy, ‘Taming The Hurricane’ (the song) is one of those songs you play in the car at full volume with the windows down while on a cross country drive!

With the album bordering on the colossal “arena rock” style, ‘Silver Eyes’ continues the hard rock thunder of everything heard so far – Saffire relentlessly bombarding listeners with a heaviness that has the band standing with one foot on the border of the heavy metal genre! And with the metal heads looking up to see what all the commotion is about – Saffire are gonna win a lot of new fans. And now for one of the hardest hitting numbers on the album ‘Fortune Favors The Bold’ – a bruising barrage of melodic rock that may just send a few listeners to the local A & E for emergency treatment! With absolutely no let up in the rock-ability of the album, Saffire storm on with probably the heaviest song on offer – ‘Wendigo’ a menacing stomp of roaring thunder. And with a superb sing a long style chorus to boot!

And with just two songs left to go, ‘Roses (Electrify)’ takes the album in a slightly mellower direction – not ballad or anything, more like a cross between hymn-like and anthemic with a little party rock thrown in! The intense hard rock the band play is still on show, it’s just filled with an array of other rock styles, making ‘Roses (Electrify)’ the most varied song on offer. And for the final song ‘Flight Of A Thousand Wings’, the band remain in mellow rock territory. Acting like a warm down after a vigorous workout, ‘Flight Of A Thousand Wings’ is a calm ending to what has been a raucous album of heavy hitting and punchy hard rock.

Overall, a hard rocking and bombastic barrage of infectious hard rock that grabs your attention and never lets go.

TRACKLIST

Triumph Of The Will
Mr. Justified
The Rapture
Read Between The Lies
Taming The Hurricane
Silver Eyes
Fortune Favors The Bold
Wendigo
Roses (Electrify)
Flight Of A Thousand Wings

http://saffire.se/
https://www.facebook.com/saffiresweden

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