Summer Lightning

Most of us are unaware that Iron Maiden had lead singers predating Paul Di'Anno. Their first vocalist was a dude named Paul Mario Day, who was only with Maiden for a short period of time because he lacked stage presence. He went on to form More, a band that released two full-length albums before splitting up in 1983. That same year, Day's other band, Wildfire, released its first album, "Brute Force and Ignorance", and a year later, released the album "Summer Lightning". If you're curious as to how Iron Maiden's first singer actually sounded, this would be one album to look for.

If you've already heard him in More, you'll notice quite a stark difference between Wildfire and Day's previous band. More had more of a crunchier, bluesy hard rock-like sound while Wildfire seemed to have a more melodic, radio-friendly sound. Most of the time, the radio-friendliness of music can be quite annoying, and the music on "Summer Lightning" is chock-full of it. It's most evident in songs such as, "Fight Fire with Fire", which contain sing-along choruses, some of which involve the song's titles are repeated over and over. It's that quality of radio-friendliness that bothers me the most; constantly repeating a song's title in an attempt to have you remember it. It worked to some extent, resulting in many people wanting to blast the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" to try and flush that annoying Boy George song out of their heads. Another factor of the band desperate to make it big are the pretentious song titles, and "Give Me Back Your Heart", and "Nothing Lasts Forever" are very good examples of this. With song titles like those, it's obvious that the band seriously wants to chart.

However, where the radio-friendliness is less evident, there can be some strong points. My personal favorite track on this album is "Gun Runner", which features an amazing riff consisting of galloping triplets. It's also got a pretty awesome main hook that sounds aggressive, yet has a somewhat adventurous feel to it, setting itself apart from the songs on "Summer Lightning" that had a radio pop-rock-ish sound. Another song that stands out from the rest is "The Key", which has an epic hook that seems to mimic that of power metal. It's the quality of the musicianship that makes epic riffs like in "The Key" that I search for in an album, not whether or not the song sticks in my head. Wildfire should have written more songs like it, for I have a feeling that they would be remembered better for it.

I would've enjoyed "Blood Money" for it is kind of a speedy song, if I didn't realize its riff sounded almost exactly like Tokyo Blade's "Night of the Blade". I mean, seriously, The two songs sound so much alike, that it's kind of hard to tell them apart! It's like they heard "Night of the Blade" and said, "Hey, let's come up with a song that has that kind of riff!" The result was an uncanny resemblance to a song which was much better in my opinion, and is evidence of Wildfire's lack of creativity. Again, they should have thought of more epic riffs like in "The Key", cos I thought that was pretty creative on their part! I feel like making "Blood Money"'s riff was lazy at best, for it mimics a song that most NWOBHM fans would instantly recognize.

Despite the radio-friendliness of all of the music, Paul Mario Day's vocals aren't all that bad. Granted, they aren't as gruff or aggressive as they were in his stint in More, but he still has that epic melodic voice, and it goes well with epic songs like "The Key" and "Gun Runner". It also goes well with the more irritating ones like "Fight Fire with Fire", which takes a few points off. Another setback of his is that he cannot do a metal scream like Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson, as he tries to do so at the end of "Gun Runner" and ends up sounding like some guy imitating a fake scream to try and be funny (no wonder Iron Maiden hired Bruce Dickinson!). The backing vocals are also pretty strong, and they elevate Day's vocals in the good songs like "The Key". However, since Day's vocals work with the ones meant to sell records, they elevate his vocals there too, thus making the songs more likely to stick in your head.

It's hard to believe that Paul Mario Day, who sang in an almost radio-rock sounding album once sang for Iron Maiden. It can be mind-blowing for the uninitiated who discover "Summer Lightning" before they do his efforts in More. When it comes to the music itself, "Summer Lighting" has all the trademarks of a band who's desperate for glory on the airwaves, but it isn't necessarily awful (I've heard worse, believe me!). The album's strong points are epic, and more of them, and the album would have been one of the finest NWOBHM albums ever made. Instead, Wildfire had to insert songs that the kids could sing along to, and "Summer Lightning" ended up being swept under the carpet of NWOBHM albums. For obvious reasons, Wildfire split up, and have only been known for having Paul Mario Day in it ever since.