Band:	Ring Of Fire
Album:	Battle Of Leningrad
Style:	Neoclassical power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	January 2014

01. Mother Russia
02. They're Calling Your Name
03. Empire
04. Land Of Frozen Tears
05. Firewind
06. Where Angels Play
07. Battle Of Leningrad
08. No Way Out
09. Our World
10. Rain

Disappointing... Probably that's the perfect word for describing how I feel about Battle Of Leningrad. Let's find out why.

First of all, no one has really expected Ring Of Fire to come back with the "almost original" line-up consisting of Boals, Macalpine and Kuprij (who left after Dreamtower). And honestly, what would you expect from a group of mega-experienced professionals? Something big, eh? Well, probably not with this one.

It looks like Frontiers Records wanted some new release, so they called the 3 heroes mentioned above and hired their "workhorse", Timo Tolkki (who has already provided them with a ton of records over the past few years) to produce the record. Timo's objectives were to find a drummer and a bassplayer, and also to do the mixing/mastering.

With all respect to Timo, I'd say, it was a big mistake to hire him for such work, because not only did he manage to find a drummer who sounds like he's not skillful enough to play with such monsters, but also ruined the sound! Yes, the sound and the overall production are awful. The guitars sound like they were recorded in a toilet room using a crappy $100 processor, keys... well that's probably the "performance" aspect, but still, the samples/presets used on this record are so damn old and unoriginal! And the bass guitar? Is it even there?

Oh I forgot to mention that Timo Tolkki himself recorded the bass parts, which are barely heard throughout the album. And finally, the album is so over-compressed! I know, it's a kind of a new trend to boost compression on mastering these days, but hell, Timo clearly hasn't got the idea right.

Ok, considering the "performance" aspect, I can only say that either they all didn't give a damn what would eventually come out of their recordings (presumably at home studios), or they became old enough to mishear how they sound or how they play. And the drummer spills some more gas into the fire; he's probably a nice guy and plays well in his band Sentiment, but he's clearly not shining bright on this record and several parts don't even click with other instruments! That's both a minus to him AND Timo Tolkki, who left those parts unedited and put them into the mix. Mark Boals has done a good job, but sometimes even he didn't click with the instruments, which adds some more disappointment.

What saved my rating for this album is probably the songwriting. Although it's not so original and excellent as on their past recordings, there still are some nice melodies and riffs, on tracks like "Empire", "Firewind", "Battle Of Leningrad" and the main riff on "Rain". However, there are some ridiculous ones, like the majority of the opening track, "Mother Russia", the track called "No Way Out" and some weird ideas here and there. I remember Mark Boals promised some conceptual lyrical work, based on the events during the Siege Of Leningrad during the WWII, and yes, he carried out this task well. However, I must admit that some songs have misleading and soulless lyrics, like "No Way Out" or "Rain".

I never thought that I would write such a negative review about such venerable musicians, but that's how it is. Don't buy this on CD - it will be a waste of money. It sounds like a cheap MP3 and it deserves to be bought in that format.