Farewell To Firefest: The Bands To Carry The AOR Torch

It's set to be a bittersweet occasion at Nottingham's Rock City this weekend when cult melodic rock show Firefest bows out after almost a decade at the forefront of a forgotten genre.

Although it's featured many iconic acts from yesteryear, perhaps the festival’s greatest service over that period of time has been exposing up and coming bands to fans still hungry for pure, unadulterated AOR bliss. In tribute to that legacy, here’s a sizzling selection of young acts who are set to keep the flame burning for many years to come.

Work Of Art

This sublimely slick Swedish trio are a veritable Rolls Royce of an AOR band, with their smooth engine fuelled by peacock proud synthesisers, Robert Sall's moody guitar licks and Lars Safsund's angelic vocals. Whether playing rockers like The Great Fall and Can't Let Go, moody anthems Whenever U Sleep and Castaway or sweet ballads in the form of Once In A Lifetime and Until You Believe, they unashamedly wear their Toto influences on their sleeves, trousers, shirts and, probably, underwear.

H.E.A.T

If one band were to be crowned the current kings of melodic rock, then H.E.A.T would be perched on top of a stadium-sized throne, such is the calibre of their power-packed anthems, high octane live shows and Erik Gronwall's scorching vocal range. Channelling the chest-beating raunch of early Bon Jovi, the tuneful roar of Whitesnake circa '1987', and Foreigner's songwriting finesse, both 2012’s 'Address The Nation' and this year's 'Tearing Down The Walls' are outstanding efforts that have positioned this Swedish gang as the band most likely to make a major league breakthrough.

Eclipse

Following two average albums, 2008’s 'Are You Ready To Rock’ and its follow up, 'Bleed And Scream', saw this – you guessed it – Swedish quartet delivering the goods, marrying supercharged hooks and smooth harmonies to the ferocious metal riffing of main man Erik Martensson and lead guitarist Magnus Henriksson. Although they veer towards the heavier side of the genre, Martensson is one of the finest – and most in demand - melodic rock writers on the block, imbuing each shitkicker with soaring choruses that sparkle and bruise in equal measure. Check out To Mend A Broken Heart, Ain't Dead Yet and Battlegrounds for proof.

Free Spirit

This Finnish six piece recently dropped their second album, 'All The Shades Of Darkened Light', and it's an accomplished piece that sounds like what might have transpired had Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Journey formed a hairspray-fuelled supergroup to dominate MTV back in the ‘80s. Sami Alho has a Bon Jovi-esque rasp to his voice, while their twin guitar arpeggios and hooky hard-rock stylings recall Def Leppard’s work with producer Mutt Lange. Hurl in lashings of pomp-rock synths, pristine production and infectious choruses aplenty and you have an absolute gem of an AOR group.

Vega

Here's a novelty; a contemporary melodic rock act from Britain. Formed in 2009 when respected songwriting twins James and Tom Martin crossed paths with singer Nick Workman, Vega's debut album, 'Kiss Of Life', showcased their skill for melding old school wall-of-velvet keyboards and incisive fretboard action with chiming U2 sonics, melodramatic refrains and glass-shaking vocal operatics. As if to emphasise the passing of the baton, their recently released third album, 'Stereo Messiah', even features a duet with Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott. The future of British AOR is clearly in good hands.

Issa

Following in the footsteps of luminaries like Robin Beck and Fiona comes Issa, whose vocals resemble a glint-eyed Stevie Nicks as she croons, soars and hits some roof shaking diva-like highs. Both 2010’s 'Sign Of Angels' and the following year’s 'The Storm' may contain a wealth of classically structured singalongs, but they are underpinned by enough dark, edgy guitar and synth grooves to make her a deliciously contemporary proposition.

Houston

Leaning towards the pink and fluffy side of the genre, these Swedes ooze so many cheesy anachronisms it's as if they've read and then purposefully swallowed the AOR handbook. And not just because they've half inched their name from an American city. Witness how perfect Pride's stabbing keys and moody textures are for late night drives where you're contemplating pseudo-profound cinematic turning points in your life, while guy-gal duet Truth Slips is a rousing burst of emancipation about breaking up and moving on. If you're jonesing for sweet melodies delivered with the gooey vocals of Styx and training montage rhythms of Survivor, then these guys will satiate those cravings.  

Fenrik Lane

These Norwegians are a thoroughly modern, multifaceted melodic rock trio, boasting an early ‘90s  grittiness on songs like Megalomania and Russian Roulette, while the sprightly Diamonds In The Waste, Runaway Car and Hot Lips are exquisite pop-rock bijous that glisten like Fountains of Wayne at their most sun-kissed. The ballads are more Goo Goo Dolls than Bon Jovi too, with Cover Your Eyes soothingly romantic and Bulletproof hauntingly impassioned. They also make some capricious left field turns, with Paranoia's renaissance flourishes authentic enough to make Ritchie Blackmore raise his goblet in approval.  With only one album to date - 2010’s '317' – we're pining for the follow up.

Miss Behaviour

If your tasteful ears have been exposed to 2011’s stunning 'Last Woman Standing' and this year's equally exceptional 'Double Agent', you'll know Sweden's Miss Behaviour deliver a non-stop onslaught of high-class melodic thrills. Influenced by Journey, Foreigner and Toto, Henrik Sproge's skyscraping synths weave wonderfully with Erik Heikne's six-string scything and Sebastian Roos' sleazy delivery as they traverse all the AOR sub-genres with equal panache. From Double Agent and Emergency's radio-humping polish to Magical Feeling and 1988's drilling grooves and Def Lep hooks, to Love Reflector and Last Woman Standing's prog-rock touches, if they keep writing music of this calibre they'll soon be wrestling H.EA.T for that crown.

Brother Firetribe

Built around the wonderfully histrionic vocals of Pekka Heino, this super-slick Finnish gang ally European symphonic bombast to the commercial gloss of uplifting American AOR with mesmerising results. 'Heart Full Of Fire', in particular, is one of the finest melodic rock records of recent times, with the retro-futuristic storm of the title track and Who Will You Run To Now?, escapist bliss of Runaways and Heard It On My Radio and sonic-sunshine of Wildest Dreams all slices of melodic opulence. Throughout Firefest's history few bands have been requested to appear as much, and as passionately, as these guys. It's fitting they'll make their first, and last, appearance on the final day of this year's festival. 

The Magnificent

Although you need mighty big balls to name your band the Magnificent, if you back it up with a debut album of all-powerful AOR sounds that recalls Europe's Americanised 'Prisoners In Paradise' and Brother Firetribe's melodic grandiosity, it becomes a pretty apt moniker. Formed by Circus Maximus' masterful singer Michael Eriksen and Leverage's Torsti Spoof, these Scandinavians offer tunes that are stacked full of tough guitar riffage, spinning keys and crashing drums. Highlights come thick and fast, with the surging Cheated By Love, sexy throb of Satin & Lace and Angel's knee-weakening balladry all epitomising the record's unrelenting quality. The band have been quiet for some time, but hope remains that album two will arrive some day.

Crazy Lixx

If you cruise over to the sleazier side of the melodic rock dance floor and encounter a band who've been spoon fed the music of sunset strip alumni like Motley Crue, Ratt and Poison, along with more Def Leppard, that will be Crazy Lixx. Spin their awesome 'New Religion' album to behold a flaming batch of sugar-rush anthems as Rock And A Hard Place, My Medicine (R.O.C.K) and 21 'Til I Die fire out gigantic gang chant choruses and incendiary guitar licks with all guns blazing. Just in case you're wondering, they hail from a country that begins with S.

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