MICHAEL SCHINKEL’S ETERNAL FLAME – Smoke On The Mountain

There have been hundreds of pretentious and ridiculous introductory songs in the history of Metal, but “Ignition” off the new Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame Smoke On The Mountain album may be one of the most ridiculous of all time. “Ignition” is anything but, starting with a reading of Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame discography, invoked in grave tones as though the Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame discography was of equal importance to the Elder Edda. It’s especially bizarre as Smoke On The Mountain is only the third album in that catalogue; and for some reason “Ignition”, in that recanting of heroic albums past, omits the first one.

There should be a certain wariness among Metal fans for artists that take themselves so seriously as to plant their name in the possessive in front of a perfectly good band name as Michael Schinkel has done with Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame, a la Ritchie Blackmore and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen (who Eternal Flame members have played with) and Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force, and Vinnie Vincent and The Vinnie Vincent Invasion, among others. Band names in that format tend to be signals that there really isn’t band at all in the sense that a band is a collaborative unit. Buyers of product by artists thusly named can typically expect an album heavy on guitar pyrotechnics and an all-new cast of characters by album three (if there is one); the practice should have been retired after the Jimi Hendrix Experience disbanded.

Despite these naming concerns, things pick up on Smoke On The Mountain after that lame intro. The title cut is a scorcher, and the other eleven cuts mostly serviceable guitar-driven rockers with solid vocals, the one exception the reflective and quietly moving instrumental outro “Close To The End”.

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