Gotthard are honoured enough to have two sets within the ‘Classic Series’ of double album reissues form Nuclear Blast, and here we have the 2009 ‘Need To Believe’ combined with 2012’s ‘Firebirth’. In some ways, this is an unusual pairing, as although the four musicians are the same in each, there is a different singer. That is because in 2011 Steve Lee was killed in freak accident when a lorry’s trailer hit some motorbikes parked at the side of the road, which then careered into Steve who was stood close by. The band decided to keep going, and to find another singer in Nic Maeder, who was similar in many ways to Steve. This line-up has continued to the present day, and they have just released ‘Silver’ to celebrate the twenty-five years since their self-titled debut in 1992.
Of the four albums I have listened to recently, ‘Firebirth’ is the weakest in terms of song quality, but that isn’t surprising given what the band had been going through in the previous year. Like the other ‘Classic’ double pairing, this is melodic hard rock with more than a simple connection with Bon Jovi and the harder forms of Journey. But, of the two sets, this is the weaker and it would be to ‘Lip Service + Domino Effect’ that I would turn to first. But, once you have that, then you should get this, and then work on completing your Gotthard collection as music of this quality and stature should not be kept just to Switzerland but shared way more widely.
