On stage this band really kicks ass, no doubt. After dozens of concerts mainly in Austria, FIRESTORM from Lower-Austria represents a solid live-force with their high-energy rock. But it’s been quite some time since their last release, so with The Outsiders they at least put out a short sign of life featuring three new songs.
And the result is quite good actually. The production turns out to be really fat and the new material is far above average though I wouldn’t consider it as outstanding. Down is a good up-tempo-rocker but the chorus could be a bit catchier though. The title-track then shows some freaky experiments within the verses with quite heavy riffing whereas the chorus itself reminds me of typical Ayreon-esque songwriting – great! My Hate Keeps Me Alive finally turns out to be the most rock-orientated song on this EP and – at the same time – has the most hit-potential due to its straight-line.
The Outsiders has become a strong release and the only real criticism I can take affects the compactness of the songs. In my opinion FIRESTORM could have done shorter songs – 4.30min for their “shock-rock”-tracks seems to be too long since the material would be much “crunchier” if it was shorter. Maybe they bear this in mind when writing their next songs!