Spirits of Fire’s ‘Light Speed Marching’ Slays

Today's post is from our friend Him. Here's the full title he wanted, but it's too long for this website's stylesheet! 

FOR THE LOVE OF RITA, I MEAN, RIPPER . . . SPIRITS OF FIRE’S “LIGHT SPEED MARCHING” SLAYS

I hope that title doesn’t make Metalboy! jealous.  And this is also a nod to Bkallday. But enough with the poster-centric lead-in call-outs . . . and the hyphens.

Never heard of Spirits of Fire before. But I like the background details: Chris Caffery (of Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra fame), Ripper, Mark Zonder (a Fates Warning alumnus), and Steve DiGiorgio (Testament’s The Gathering, anyone?). Who produced this slab of metal? Roy Z. Who released it? Frontiers. Okay, at least the Italian guy didn’t get his spaghetti-covered mitts on this one!

I think that the song speaks for itself:

This is the Ripper of “Cathedral Spires.” This is the Timmy that Priest wanted, chose, and then opted to drop in favor of the metal god, Rob.  I even hear a distinct nod to the Painkiller-era. Heck, even the album cover looks like it could be a Priest disc. 

I was about to say something controversial about this song and how it compares to the current iteration of Priest. But I will let both stand on their own merits. And they both do stand.

As some noted on my previous post, Ripper is in too many bands. But, to his credit, he explains that he has bills to pay and obligations to meet. He is a lifer and bands like Spirits of Fire help to pay his way. No shame in that, especially when he can turn out music like this. I still don’t like the hat, though.

Buy the album here:

Spirits Of Fire

Comments

[Dale]

Sounds a lot like Priest painkiller!!!! which is not a bad thing!!!!!!

[Gary]

This just smolders 👍 Chris Caffery is a beast. Dude can play anything.(he played in Jimmy Sturr's POLKA band. Google it) lol. That being said, Ripper makes him look like the family kitten. Dude has beyond epic pipes. (Although I've never head him do Polka. In heaven, there is no beer....)

[crued]

I like this a lot! especially the solo when they do that harmony thing good call Him

[Basileus]

What I have always been curious about all these quicky, one-off bands is: what is the business model? These bands don’t tour and as far as I can tell they don’t, except in rare ocassions, make anything more than a minor ripple in the charts, if they even make the charts. Even bands that gained 20 times more attention and publicity and had much more prominent members and actually toured, such as, say, Kill Devil Hill, sold maybe 1,200 albums their first week and then quickly sank.

I would be curious for an explanation of how the business model for these bands work, both from the artist perspective and the record company. Maybe it’s simply that they keep costs low, but then get to consistently generate content that in turn the record company can monetize via You Tube channels and streams? Sure, revenue generated via these means on any one of these bands is trivial but if you have 25 of these bands, each one with 11-12 songs, each one generating micro revenues from multiple platforms maybe it all adds up in the end? Beats me, just speculating.

[Rita]

Ha ha. Thanks Him. It's hard to keep track of all of Rippers work so thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I just downloaded it on Apple Music and will give it a listen.

I suppose all these projects given Tim the opportunity to keep doing what he loves, permanent band notwithstanding.

And by reading between the lines, I am pretty sure I am going to love it.

Thanks again :)

[Rita]

Great song.

Hope the rest of the album is just as good.

My boy Tim never lets me down :)

[Bkallday]

Not impressed. But that's just me. A tad too Iced Earth, Power-metallish for me. I loved his work with Priest btw and those two cds crushed. Not this but on to the next project for ol Ripper! 😎

[Metalboy!]

Such a phenomenal voice, one wishes he could put something together that will last.

Just call the band RIPPER, get a monster guitarist like Zakk Wylde and have Desmond Child, Nikki Sixx and Bob Rock team up to write an album’s worth of songs.

Now, THAT would ROCK!!!

[Bob]

I'm with Bk on this one. a little too much on the power metal side for me. A cool ripper project that most people either don't know about, or don't mention, was Beyond Fear. they made one album that was really killer, especially the first song on the album. ripper is blessed with amazing pipes, but I don't care for most of the projects he gets involved in. A wasted talent most of the time IMHO.

[Him]

Good comments, one and all.

And I am glad you liked it, Rita. Hope all is well up North!

Basileus, the key to your question is to move it a bit further out: do a bit of research on Frontiers Records/Music. I bag on them a lot. But Metaboy! has a point about their value/worth (see previous posts). The model is based on new releases from established acts that lost major label promotion, reconfigurations of those bands into one-off releases, and new releases by unproven but adjacent acts (particularly ones from Europe and Italy, their home base). It about quantity over quality for the most part. It is a version of what Century Media did years ago (and still sorta' does but with a much different approach nowadays).

Bottom-line: they push product without a lot of promotion. But they do make good use of the fact that making these albums and related videos costs much less these days. So the more they release, the more they release. It relies on less buyers for any one band. But it does rely on buyers. What it doesn't require--or really fund--are tours. Hence, the one and done super groups. They rely on the built-in audience the legacy acts provide and then hope that entices those same fans to dabble in other projects/products as well.

A variation on this is Rock Candy, which I love. They re-release classics from bands we love(d) that are out of print or in new formats with some new perks. It is a more focused model. Thing is, you won't find that new group you fall in love with at Rock Candy. I also dig their magazine (see previous post/review).

So there is room for both models. It a question of what grabs you.