Highway's Call

Time for some hard rockin’! Fire For Hire is a three-piece from the midlands of Finland with only around two years of hard time together under this banner but definitely more years served on their respective instruments. Tight playing all around throughout this two-song single. Really gritty and punchy production job too so no signs of shoddiness as far as the technical execution of things is concerned. Musically, the disc-opening title track churns forward with very traditional hard rock muscle in fine gear. The riffs have a good groove to it, adequately booming bass locks in with the drums and the mid-tempo fare slowly but surely gets the fist to lift up a bit and pump onwards. George Thorogood & the Destroyers with a notch less boogie in the mix comes to mind. Action on the microphone has a fitting baritone flair to it, belting out the motivation to drive and push the pedal. Speaking of pushing the pedal, the second track Trial By Fire throws a very nice curve ball with its opening riff which has a definite Black Sabbath-vibe in it. Even a bit of a shame that it only dooms forward for one rotation before picking up speed for the verses. It does repeat soon enough below the vocalized parts but would’ve loved to hear that riff churn on in the intro for a bit more. Lotta bite in it. But I must say that going forward, the song makes up for this need nicely with a faster pace, great guitar solo and grinding on that riff again before the closing choruses. Overall, Fire For Hire’s debut release shows much promise for the field of Motörhead-influenced rocking. As things stand, nothing spectacular but at the same time, nothing is in need of serious fixing either. Much promise is shown right away, so just honing the skills and elements displayed here further should lead to some very nifty banging of the limbs.