Aria - Игра с огнем (1989)^{Release ID: 8357}

It was only a couple of months ago that I finally investigated one of Russian heavy metal icons Ария’s highly regarded albums & I generally found it to be a pretty enjoyable experience too. They proved themselves to be a very capable group of musicians who had clearly paid their dues & knew exactly what they were doing. I felt that it was a shame that Ария hadn’t secured overseas record label backing because 1987’s “На службе силы зла” certainly deserved more attention than it received at the time. It did however pique my interest in what Ария’s other classic period releases might have to offer though which brings us to their 1989 fourth full-length “Игра с огнем”.

As with “На службе силы зла”, “Игра с огнем” is once again produced by guitarist Vladimir Kholstinin & bassist Vitaly Dubinin, only this time they’ve achieved a more professional result with the very raw guitar tone of the previous album having been replaced with a crunchy yet far more cohesive one on this occasion. There’s been only the one lineup change since their third album with drummer Sergey Mavrin having been replaced by Alexander Manyakin who would stay with the band until Mavrin's return in 2002. The high-quality musicianship that was a feature of “На службе силы зла” is once again on show on “Игра с огнем”, perhaps even being a little better highlighted by the improved sound quality. Ария were certainly a class act at the time & I’d imagine their live shows (if they played any) would have been well worth seeing.

If you do a little online research you’ll very quickly discover that Ария are generally regarded as an Iron Maiden clone. I could see how people might say that after spending some time with “На службе силы зла” but Ария really doubled down on that approach for “Игра с огнем”, so much so that if you replaced front man Valery Kipelov with someone that sounded a little more similar to Bruce Dickinson then you’d find it hard to tell them apart from the NWOBHM legends. In fact, some of this material is so close that you can pick the exact Maiden track that Ария are trying to emulate at any one time but the fact that they pull it off to a comparable level of quality to their idols is a pretty major feather in their caps. I mean, despite how popular & influential they are, there are relatively few bands out there that have the skills required to accurately recreate the melodic complexities & progressive atmospherics of Iron Maiden in their prime but Ария seem to do it with ease & the fact that they’ve stopped short of recruiting a Bruce-clone & choose to maintain their native language gives them a reasonable point of differentiation. Valery Kipelov is a talented front man in his own right &, despite the instrumental prowess on display, most of the best moments are aligned with Kipelov's more successful vocal hooks. I believe I mentioned it in my review of “На службе силы зла” but it's worth reiterating how much he reminds me of a gruffer version of Scorpions' front man Klaus Meine. 

There are a few clear highlight tracks included amongst the seven on offer in the fast-paced opener “Что вы сделали с вашей мечтой?”, the lengthy progressive number “Игра с огнем” & the anthemic “Бой продолжается” (my personal favourite). It’s a real shame that the tracklisting finishes up with clearly the weakest song on the album in the lethargic “Дай жару!” as “Игра с огнем” seemed to be heading towards a very solid four-star rating prior to tripping at the finish line. I also wonder whether I might have rated an album like this one a touch higher if not for the foreign language vocals. I don’t dislike them in any way but I do think metal records with clean-sung, foreign-language vocals are at a slight disadvantage with me in that I’m not sure I can quite reach the intended climax with a chorus hook that I can’t connect with from a lyrical perspective. I think it’s an even playing field until you start to hit that four-star threshold though. It’s not the same with harsh vocals as there’s far less of a reliance on melodic chorus hooks.

“Игра с огнем” is another pretty decent album from a highly talented group of Russian metalheads who weren’t willing to allow politics to dictate to them on how they spend their spare time or express themselves creatively & artistically. I’d suggest that it’s a slight improvement on the already enjoyable “На службе силы зла” from two years earlier although there’s not a lot in it with the improved production perhaps being the clincher. If you’re a fan of Valery Kipelov’s other band Кипелов, don't mind a bit of foreign-language heavy metal like Japan's Loudness or simply wish that Iron Maiden's incredible run of 1980's classics had never ended then I think you could do a lot worse than to give “Игра с огнем” a spin or three.