EZ Livin' - Firestorm

Given that the band’s debut album, released in 1991, was called ‘After The Fire’ one may think that these guys have a feeling for the hot stuff, and yes it has been more than twenty years since the debut, but that is because guitarist Hans Ziller has been rather more occupied with his other band, Bonfire. After all this time he felt that it was right to resurrect the name and looked to some friends for assistance, with the new line-up now comprising drummer Harry Reischmann (Bonfire), Ronnie Parks (Tango Down and Seven Witches) on bass guitar, Paul Morris (Rainbow) on keyboards, piano & organ, and former Accept singer David Reece along with guest guitarist Chris Lyne (Mother Road and ex Soul Doctor).

This is class blues-based hard rock, with more than a small amount of Bad Company in the mix, while fans of bands like Thunder and The Quireboys will also find much to get excited about as this is Seventies-styled rock with balls, melody and real passion. To be perfectly honest, there is much more going on here for me to get excited about than Hans’ main band! The absolute cream on the top of all of this has to be their cover of the song from which they took their name, the classic “Easy Livin’ by Uriah Heep. They haven’t tried to do a straight cover, but have deconstructed it, especially at the beginning, with the riff on the off-beat and as a Heep fan of long-standing I just loved it. The main question for me would be whether or not Reece would go for the high falsettos or not, but I am glad to say that he hit them well.

This is an album that any fans of Seventies blues-based hard rock will get a great deal from, and is will worth checking out.