The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening is the second debut album from Fireball Ministry. I must admit that I am loving it. Its got an awesome feel and tone. A completely refreshing sound harkening back to the glory days of metal and hard rock. Its got groove, its got punch and its got an amazing female guitar player by the name of Emily J. Burton. Now, I'm not playing this off as some gimmicky thing as in "Oh my gosh!! Female Guitarist!! How awesome!!" Its just that, shes got a lot of good riffs. And a lot of soul in her sound which is more than youll hear from most.

The lineup is filled out by Reverend James A Rota the Second on vocals and guitar. If hes got a church I'll be at mass every sunday. I'll focus on his vocals since well, they are awesome. Unique sounding. They remind me of something yet I can't quite point my finger in that direction. Like singing at a hard rock karaoke bar and having the rest of the bar join in with you. John Oreshnick pounds the skins..er.. that is his drumkit in pure rock fashion kicking much ass. Lastly Brad Davis lays a heavy load of low end on the album with killer fills and tons of massive bottom-end-burliness.

You'd be hard pressed to find a bad song on this album. From opener King through, for me, album highlight Maidens of Venus, everysong is simply structured in true rock and roll fashion whilst retaining character and integrity without becoming locked or pigeonholed into a certain song progression. There are tons of awesome harmonies and leads.

Like I said, every song is great so there are only one or two spots where I have comments. Point one: The end of Daughter of the Damned. The song just ends! That made me upset especially since there was such an awesome build-up to that particular point. A blistering solo there could possibly have generated an amount of awesomeness large enough to destroy the universe with true believers in the rock faith of the Fireball Ministry being sent to a land of amplifiers and alchohol. As it is, the song is kick ass but, once again, that solo! Other than that Rolling On doesnt seem to fit with some of the other tracks but is still a good song.

The Second Great Awakening this album is. A Second Great Awakening of hard rock and metal.