_{To me personally, mention of German band Bonfire will always invoke memories of the late 80’s and the album “Point Blank” in particular. That of course is a bit unfair as the band has been around for over 30 years and has just released their 15th studio album. That album is called “Temple of Lies” and it was released through AFM Records on 13th April. The track “Crazy Over You” was included on the Friday NI Rocks Show on 20th April.}

 

_{In reality, Bonfire has been around for over 45 years as the band was first formed by guitarist Hans Ziller in 1972 under the name Cacumen. Two albums were released before the name change to Bonfire in 1986. The first of fifteen studio albums as Bonfire was “Don’t Touch The Light” which was released that same year. That was followed by “Fireworks” in 1987 and “Point Blank” in 1989. The band went through a stormy period after that album with Ziller being fired and losing ownership of the band name for a while. By 1996 things had been resolved and Ziller and vocalist Claus Lessman were back together making albums.}

_{There had always been a lot fluidity in the band line-up, but a big change came in 2015 with the departure of Lessman who had been fronting the band with Ziller since 1978. Initially he was replaced by David Reece, but that was short-lived and current vocalist Alexx Stahl joined the band in late 2016.}

 

_{“Temple of Lies” is the second studio album to feature Alexx Stahl on vocals. Joining him and Hans Ziller are guitarist Frank Pané, bass player Ronnie Parkes and drummer Tim Breideband.}

 

_{The standard release features 10 tracks, including a short intro called “In The Beginning”. The other tracks are a mix of melodic hard tunes and ballads. The vinyl version includes a bonus acoustic version of “Comin Home”. That is also included on the Digipak along with another 20 minute long bonus track.}

 

_{Check out the band’s website at http://www.bonfire.de/}

_{About “NI Rocks Recommends”}

_{The simple idea behind “NI Rocks Recommends” is to acknowledge and promote some of the great music being submitted to Rock Radio NI. The albums that I’ll be recommending are those that you’ll hear me playing tracks from on my shows. I'll not be giving marks or ratings or analyzing the tracks in great detail; just telling you something about the artist and the album. It’s a personal recommendation to go check something out, not a traditional “review”!}