Firebird - 'Grand Union'

Long-running fuzzed-out, seventies-styled rock band, led by extreme metal pioneer, performs laid-back music.

Considering his work on Grand Union, the latest slab of seventies rock from England’s Firebird, it’s hard to believe that singer/guitarist Bill Steer was involved with the seminal releases of extreme music pioneers Napalm Death and Carcass. Interestingly, the band is signed to Rise Above Records, the label owned by Lee Dorian, a man who similarly changed the course of his career by leaving Napalm Death prior to co-founding doom metal icons Cathedral.

Such a drastic musical departure (one of the album’s three covers is actually a jacked-up version of James Taylor’s “Fool For You”) to chilled, laid-back hard rock isn’t overindulgent, however it may appear to be on the surface. Plugging away with Firebird since 1999, few would question the authenticity of Steer’s passion for fuzzed-out rock ’n roll. An accomplished rock guitarist, Steer’s licks and solos jump out like a pack of kids lunging for an ice cream truck.

Either the melancholy of “Lonely Road” or the easy grooving of “Caledonia” would appropriately play through a jukebox for the lustful slow dance at closing time. Both are counter-pointed on Grand Union by testosterone-fueled numbers like “Gold Label,” a track overflowing with enough bottom-heavy rumbling that would calm the bar’s burly-bearded tough guy who was angered for not being a part of that slow dance.

Yet while Steer maturely avoids masturbatory musical experimentation in favor of using his talents to serve each song, there’s a sense that he’s not pushing himself to greater heights. And like fellow extreme metaller-turned-rocker Nicke Andersson, who moved on from Entombed to garage-rockers The Hellacopters, Steer’s enjoyable voice hasn’t developed at the same rate of progress as the rest of his musical abilities.