Stephen
Firehouse is a part of the last wave of glam metal bands that's struggling and survived the grunge invasion, thanks to their double-platinum eponymous debut that put them on the map and won the Best New Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band of 1991 at American Music Award. Their musical direction is pure melodic hard rock with some sleaze and blues twist, mostly displayed the strength of sing-along chorus, memorable riffs, and happy vibe. Singer C.J.Snare has a very unique and terrific high pitch vocal, similar to Mark Slaughter or Michael Sweet's squeal and Bill Leverty put out some beautiful guitarworks all over the songs.
While they started off bumpy with a weak "Rock On The Road", the next three tracks are enough to set a high rating for this one. "All She Wrote" is a great uptempo classic, "Shake And Tumble" unleashed a nasty groove, and "Don't Treat Me Bad" is an awesome slab of catchy hard rock. "Lover's Lane" is a bad-ass rocker with a really great riffs, "Don't Walk Away" is a good bluesy experimentation, "Helpless" is probably unknown to many but a wonderful closer with big chorus, "Love of A Lifetime" is a timeless ballad and everybody knows this song. However, in my opinion, the true gem of this album is "Overnight Sensations", from the Snare's screamintro to the commercial and bombastic chorus, this song came out as the champion.
The production level is quite thin, you have to crank up the volume for maximum pleasure, but the details are crisp and clear, so it's still an acceptable situation. With couple of decent tracks and the unnecessary instrumental fill of "Seasons of Change", this album still stands high above par. An essential album to have if you're fond of a high quality melodic hard rock output, a classic!