Ricky Warwick has reached the stage of his career where he could probably release an album consisting entirely of him reading the shipping forecast over a Thin Lizzy riff and there’d be an army of people prepared to defend it. Thankfully, we don’t need to worry as Fire & Vengeance is considerably better than that.
Warwick’s ninth solo album finds him doing what he has done with dogged consistency for almost four decades: writing enormous, unfussy rock songs about life, mortality, frustration, politics, and the considerable achievement of making it through the week without punching someone directly in the face. There’s plenty of familiar territory here for regular listeners, but Ricky also weaves in just enough variation to stop the album becoming completely predictable.
The title track is built around a meaty riff and an effortlessly catchy chorus…this is classic Warwick, and if there’s one thing he knows how to do, it’s how to craft a chorus that is designed for a crowd to shout back in his face! Hellbent & Heaven Sent is even better, bringing a punkier edge and the sort of swagger that suggests Warwick has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. The inclusion of a masterful solo by Doug Aldrich certainly doesn’t hurt this track either.
Seek Zen Destroy, featuring Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, takes an altogether more unexpected route, there’s funk style guitars and synths thrown into the mix here. It’s an interesting diversion but as the choruses slip back into that classic Warwick stadium feel, I can’t help but wish that he had committed to the experiment a bit more. In fact, this is perhaps the album’s only weakness…Warwick knows exactly what he’s good at, and he has a tendency to fall into the ‘comfortable’ even when he’s trying to push his musical boundaries.
Fortunately, the highlights are strong enough to make that a relatively minor complaint. When The King Falls, featuring Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr, brings a Stonesy, country-rock flavour, while Tumbleweed Town delivers one of the album’s strongest choruses. Album closer If You Think Your Country Needs You… is a politically driven, emotionally poignant powerhouse of a song and Last Chance To Dance sits neatly as an affectionate nod towards Phil Lynott, with Warwick understandably embracing the influence of the man he spent years spiritually emulating in Thin Lizzy…it’s a brilliant song and definitely one of the album highlights. However, nothing hits that sweet spot as much as when Warwick indulges his Northern Irish heritage, and this comes through on Sweet County Down, a warm, folk-inflected celebration that could have been taken straight from his 2009 Belfast Confetti album.
Fire & Vengeance isn’t revolutionary, it isn’t reinventing the wheel, but Warwick doesn’t want (or need) to update the blueprint of rock music; he’s an artist who consistently refines a language he has been speaking fluently since The Almighty were kicking holes in stages in the late ’80s.
There’s a on overwhelming feeling of familiarity here, even when the musical borders are being prodded. But when Warwick gets it right, he makes writing a great rock song sound wonderfully simple, and there are few that do it as well, or with as much swagger, as Ricky Warwick!
Best Paired with – A pair of scratched sunglasses and a knowing smile.
Reviewed by Bryn.
Ricky warwick – fire & vengeance is out now on earache records.
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