BURNING PATH – Burning Path

vote
6.5

• Bands:
  BURNING PATH
• Duration: 00:39:04
• Available from: 02/27/2026
• Label:

• Dying Victims Productions

Streaming not yet available

On Christmas Eve 2024 we published on this site the tragic news of the assassination of Andre Adasme, aka Hades, guitarist and singer of the Chilean band Lucifer's Hammer, killed by a stranger at the age of thirty-eight.
The Chilean band, dedicated to heavy metal as traditional as possible, suddenly found itself faced with an irreparable fracture; Rodrigo Adasme, alias Titan, drummer of the group since the beginning and brother of Hades, was called upon to take up the weight of that legacy and was called upon to make a complex and far from obvious choice. The decision was to continue the musical journey but under a new name, together with the historic lead guitarist Hypnos, thus giving life to Burning Path and one can understand, already by taking a look at the logo and the cover, that the band was not born to overturn the canons of heavy metal as we know it, but to continue in the same path traced by Lucifer's Hammer with four full-lengths in a twelve-year career.

With the two musicians dividing tasks and exchanging roles on the various instruments – Titan, in addition to sitting behind the skins, takes care of the vocals and, in some places, the guitars – Burning Path's debut opens in the closest possible way to Lucifer's Hammer's last album of 2024, “Be And Exist”.
The latter, between a couple of short introductions and an entirely instrumental piece, seemed less inspired than the previous “The Trip” with only six properly completed songs, almost as if it were an EP diluted to the point of becoming a full-length.
“Burning Path”, on the contrary, shows greater homogeneity and, at times, a less 'Maidenian' sound and closer to that of minor heroes of the NWOBHM. Titan's voice, which has many points in common with that of his brother Hades, for example, recalls that of Alan Marsh from the very first Tokyo Blade, although in a higher pitch.
Even among the songs – despite episodes where it seems that the band has entered automatic pilot in the compositional phase, reviving old ideas of Lucifer's Hammer as in the intro “The Imminent Passage Of Time”, “Chasing The Future” and “Another Day” – moments appear that are decidedly more inspired and not far from the lesson of Tokyo Blade and Grim Reaper, due to the accentuated melodic component that alternates aggressive riffs with 'circular' and easy-to-use harmonic solutions.
This is the case of a couple of notable episodes such as “Take Me High” and “The God Who Dwells In The Sword”, where Titan's somewhat flat vocal style finds a suitable counterbalance in the melodic construction and in a performance where our band demonstrates the experience gained in the studio over the years.
If “A Step Far Beyond” and “When Darkness Falls” are quite similar, “The Darkness That Will Last” closes Burning Path's first album with a seven-minute Iron Maiden-style ride, encapsulating a bit of the epic and dramatic spirit that permeates the entire work.

The beauty of the melodic – and excellently executed – Dave Murray solos full of reverb and emotional bending, and the clean arpeggios that create atmosphere, manage to balance a writing that in more than one instance looks at already known solutions, such that, at times, listening is a little long-winded, even if the discreet workmanship of the whole will not turn away the most inveterate admirers of the genre in question.
However, “Burning Path” remains a solid album of classic heavy metal, played with experience and conviction and, above all, with great dignity. A sincere tribute to the deceased leader and a record that, while revealing great margins for growth on a compositional level, will effortlessly earn a place in the hearts of fans of the Chilean band and of traditional heavy metal.