Old CDs Reviewed Anew #12 - Ronny Munroe - The Fire Within

Ronny Munroe
The Fire Within
Ratpak Records - 2009
http://www.ronnymunroe.com

The solo debut from ex-Metal Church frontman Ronny Munroe shows both promise and flaws.

With production and engineering handled mainly by his ex-Metal Church bandmate Kurdt Vanderhoof, Munroe (who co-produced) has a strong sounding album. His power vocals retain the gritty edge any who has heard him has come to know.

The album opens up with a pretty solid rocker tune "Far". It is a definite right move to kick off the CD on an aggressive note.

I didn't care for the next track "What You Choose To Call Hell (I Call Home)". The lengthy title seemed a bit pretentious and though the song does feature a guitar solo from Queensryche's Michael Wilton, I just found the song to be flat and with an entirely too repetitive chorus.

To be honest tracks 2 through 5 were all kind of weak. Just didn't care for the lyrics mainly. Munroe co-wrote each song on the album (save the closing cover song) and while the ones he hit on were really good, the consistency of quality lyrics still kind of needs work.

The rest of the album gets better as it goes on. "Demon Opera" is pretty good, while "Across The Sea of Souls" moves from a slow opening to a faster groove. Michael Wilton contributed the guitar solo on this song as well.

Musically, the cover of "Man on the Silver Mountain" sounds really good. However, I don't know what was up with the vocals. They were all over the place. At times Munroe sounded great and at other points in the song he sounded as if was straining to hit notes. Being a huge fan of Dio, you have to do the song perfectly or I'm just not going to like it that much. Need proof of that? Check out the horrible Killswitch Engage cover of Dio's "Holy Diver".

For me the three best tracks on the album come near the end. "Evil Genius" is a fast rocker with some solid lyrics. Munroe sounds great here. The song "Ride Me" is another rocker. And the lyrics here are a tease. I'm not sure if the song is supposed to sound as dirty as I interpreted the lyrics or not, but the lyric "Ride Me Into Submission" doesn't seem to leave a lot of ambiguity to the tone of the song.

The best song is "Desperate Man". It has a great uptempo vibe to the song. The track kicks off fast and then about 2:30 into it, the pace slows down and then finishes out fast and loud. It was co-written with Vanderhoof and this should be the showcase track from the CD.

I loved Munroe's work with Metal Church so the chances are I'm going to love his solo work as well. This album is really good, but it could be better since 4 of the songs are flat out not my cup of tea.

He actually has a second album that came out in 2011 called Lords of the Edge that I'm looking forward to getting to see the next steps in his musical journey.

Grade: B