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Bodyguerra – Fire & Soul

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Bodyguerra - Fire & Soul

Bodyguerra - Fire & Soul
3.6

Rating

 3.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Excellent guitar and signature voice
  • The bonus tracks show so much talent
  • Rather long album

Flyctory.com Cons

  • More signature songs needed

Rock from Germany: On 15th October 2021, the Western German band Bodyguerra will release their second album Fire & Soul. I received it as a promo release and felt I should share this interesting project with you.

 

Bodyguerra – About The Artists

Bodyguerra is a rock band from Münster, Germany. The most well-known band member is likely guitarist Guido Stoecker. The other band members are Daniel Perl (bass), Christian Antwerpen (drums) and – last, but not least – singer Ela Sturm. They already debuted with an album in 2013 – however, it took them eight years to complete Fire & Soul after the publication of Freddy… nothing as it seems.

 

Bodyguerra – Fire & Soul – Track by Track

The thirteen song album lasts 64 minutes. The last two songs are marked as bonus tracks.

1. Stay Free

Bodyguerra are true rockers – and that also reflects in the duration of their songs: apart from the bonus tracks, only two songs are shorter than 4:30 minutes. The opener lasts roughly five and a half minutes. After the intro, which gives me a slight feeling of AC/DC classics, the guitar are scrumming their riffs, while Ela Sturm is roaring into the microphone. A powerful song, which is so much profiting from the great work on the guitar and the present voice of the vocalist.

2. Danger Zone

Not the Top Gun song – but Danger Zone comes with the same speed as the jet fighters. One of the key elements of the song is the great guitar solo – the vocals feels a bit dissonant, but that’s maybe just because we are in a Danger Zone.

3. You Never Know Why

Great guitar work, which is driving the song, the powerful rock voice of Ela Sturm – You Never Know Why relies on the same strengths like the song before. The track is marching forward for over five minutes and just feels like a good listen. Here and there I struggle with the vocals in this song, though.

4. Behind The Clouds

After the first three songs felt a lot like hard rock, the German band shoes a softer touch in Behind The Clouds. Not a ballad, rather a melodic rock song. I feel a touch of Americana rock in this song as well. Not my favorite song on the album.

5. Magical Touch

The rather short Magical Touch feels like a 1980’s rocker with nice melodic moments. The frequent repetitions give the song a pop touch, but also turn it into a really catching and entertaining listen. Good.

6. Steelheart

Steelheart has been one of the songs the band selected as a single release so far. The riffs are harder again compared to the two songs before – but Bodyguerra are not rocking as hard as they did at the beginning of the album (the chorus is having some more powerful guitar play, though). A song which is somehow a nice listen for any kind of rock lover – even though the best part feels to be the guitar solo to me.

7. Soultrail

Soultrail is an at most mid-tempo, in which the band also moves between different kinds of atmosphere. The vocals feel a bit too sharp to me and the song is not rocking enough to be a symphonic or death metal track in which this kind of plot often work out. Thus, the song is rather on the fail side to me – guitar lovers at least get reliable rock quality from Stoecker in his solo showcase.

8. Breakout

Already with the first riffs of the song, Breakout clearly states that this song is one for the headbanging part of the rock community. Even though I feel that the songs at the beginning of the album are better, I think that this kind of songs are Bodyguerra at their best: the high quality on the guitar side simply suits best to a raspy, slightly screaming voice by Sturm.

9. Fire & Soul

The title track is almost hiding on the ninth position. The song almost completes a duration of eight minutes. With its strong groove, the song partially has a nice touch of blues rock, but then turns into hard rocking again. Cool song.

10. Out Of Control

Out Of Control is one of these songs about which I believe they are somewhere in the slightly above average range on an album – but a lot of fun on stage. Whenever these guys open for a major act, I recommend this riff smasher in the list of songs, for sure.

11. Believe

The set of eleven “ordinary” songs of the album closes with the second single release. Believe is one of the best songs of the album to me. Well arranged, the song just stays well in your mind. Good one.

12. 100 Mann und ein Befehl

And then there are the bonus tracks. The first one is such a break to the songs before: just three minutes and a cover of a song which has originally been performed by German schlager singer Freddy Quinn. 100 Mann und ein Befehl does not fit to the remaining at all – but the band does it surprisingly well.

13. Xmas Is Special

Just in time for the festive season, the second bonus track is a Christmas-themed song. Again, the band is absolutely surprising me – this one is not too bad at all. Just a bit kitschy.

 

Bodyguerra – Fire & Soul – Spotify

Here is Fire & Soul on Spotify:

 

Bodyguerra – Fire & Soul – My View

I like Fire & Soul – but I don’t love it. The album lives too much from the excellent work on the guitar and the signature voice. I would love to have a wider range of songs, something more special, maybe also more songs which are great to party with the band. Interestingly, the two bonus tracks show how versatile these four guys are – hope they dare to show more of that in the future.

 

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