Fireball Ministry, Remember the Story: Taking a Page
It’s difficult to believe that it’s been 18 years since Los Angeles-based heavy rockers Fireball Ministry made their debut with Où Est la Rock? (discussed here) on Bong Load Custom Records, but then, it’s also hard to believe it’s been seven since their self-titled (review here) was issued via Restricted Release. Fireball Ministry followed two strong outings in 2003’s The Second Great Awakening and 2005’s Their Rock is Not Our Rock, and while a perhaps overly slick production took away some of the impact one found in the songs on their earlier offerings, the band’s songwriting was as crisp and efficient as ever.
Prior to and following the release of that album, founding guitarist/vocalist James A. Rota spent time in supergroup The Company Band alongside guitarist Dave Bone, Clutch vocalist Neil Fallon, Fu Manchu bassist Brad Davis and CKY drummer Jess Margera, but still, seven years is a significant delay between full-lengths for Fireball Ministry, who in the interim have continued to play shows and brought bassist Scott Reeder (The Obsessed, Kyuss, Unida, etc.) on board the lineup with Rota, guitarist/backing vocalist Emily Burton and drummer John Oreshnick.
No doubt that’s a powerhouse presence and I won’t take away from what Reeder brings to the Hollywood rockers’ overall sound on their fifth long-player, Remember the Story (on Cleopatra Records), but as was the case seven years ago and has been the case with Fireball Ministry all along it is still the songwriting that most shines through. Elements bleed in from classic metal, desert heavy and voracious riff rock, but it’s the structural integrity of what Rota and company do with those pieces that makes the 10-song/51-minute full-length so undeniably their own.
Especially after the self-titled, production was a question heading into Remember the Story, but as opener “End of Our Truth” and the following “Everything You Wanted” set a tone through hook, comfortable tempo and a purposeful fervency of groove, the contribution of producer/engineer Paul Fig — who has helmed records for post-reunion Alice in Chains as well as Rush and Ghost, among others of a more metallic ilk — shines through in presenting the songs with a clean sense that nonetheless doesn’t detract from their harder-hitting aspects.
Oreshnick‘s drums push “End of Our Truth” into and through its chorus with ease as Reeder noodles his bassline beneath the core riffing from Rota and Burton, and an immediate balance is established that Remember the Story maintains for its duration as cuts like the bruiser-riffed “The Answer” and the melodic highlight “Weavers Dawn” bring a feeling of variety around the root approach, which remains straightforward and unabashed in its will to engage the audience on the level of classic heavy rock. That is, Fireball Ministry clearly aren’t looking to change the world.
While peppered with raucous moments as on the cowbell-laden “Back on Earth” here or the transfigured Sabbathian swing and stomp of “All for Naught” — which seems to draw a direct line to “A National Acrobat” — it’s never been Fireball Ministry‘s intention to reinvent heavy rock so much as to highlight the best of what never needed reinventing about it in the first place.
They do that again with Remember the Story, and indeed as the songs play out through the meatier “Dying to Win,” the aptly-titled instrumental “Stop Talking” and the rolling title-track, that indeed becomes the narrative of the record as a whole. It is a story worth remembering, and the hooks the entire way through are earworm enough to make sure that listeners do precisely that, whether it’s the initial energy of the opening two cuts as bolstered by “Back on Earth” or the seeming B-side that begins with “Stop Talking” and moves inexorably toward acoustic-led closer “I Don’t Believe a Word.”
That latter, and last, track is a Motörhead cover taken from 1996’s Overnight Sensation and is given something of a manifesto feel as regards Rota‘s delivery of the lyrics. The perspective is very much in keeping with sentiments like Their Rock is Not Our Rock and the more political mindset of the self-titled — the band setting itself apart from its surroundings and offering a critique from a distant point of view. With Burton joining Rota on vocals in a follow-up to the harmonies that cap “Weavers Dawn” or the call and response in the verses of “Everything You Wanted” back on side A, it’s a moment of departure from the rest of Remember the Story, but still not so far removed as to upset the overarching flow of the record, which after finding itself on the steadiest of ground in its first half takes relative advantage of the opportunity to be a bit more adventurous with its second.
Again, classic form. And giving that classic form a modernist execution is what Fireball Ministry have done best for going on 20 years. Listening to Remember the Story, one can’t help but wonder if the band’s intention wasn’t to remind its audience of that in the first place — an urging toward recall rather than, say, the suggestion that this outing is the complete story to be remembered. It may or may not be, but especially as the title-track and “All for Naught” roll into “I Don’t Believe a Word” and the band get ready to make their collective exit, there’s a sense of summary that seems to extend beyond this record itself, speaking perhaps for the work of Fireball Ministry across their discography and examining the group’s place in the heavy rock underground, their accomplishments, their letdowns, and what they might still hope to do.
The question that will remain to be seen, especially with a seven-year gap between the last LP and this one, is whether Fireball Ministry‘s story has received its last chapter, or if it will continue. For what it’s worth, the returned vigor to their impact serves them remarkably well throughout here, and though well expected, their level of craft is as uncompromising in its accomplishment as ever. It’s not like they didn’t know what they were doing all along, but maturity suits them, and if this might be their final statement, they’ve reaffirmed their place among deeply underappreciated heavy rock songwriters.
Fireball Ministry, “The Answer” official video
Fireball Ministry on Thee Facebooks
Fireball Ministry on Instagram
Fireball Ministry at Cleopatra Records
Cleopatra Records on Thee Facebooks
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