India’s Fire In The Rodeo arrive in the Sentinel Daily inbox. All is quiet.

But then the boss man cracks open the digital promo, heads to YouTube to take a squizz at some vids, and gets on the international hotline to yours truly. “Incoming new hard rock sensations!” he screams, and then the line goes dead. Thirty seconds later, India’s Fire In The Rodeo arrive in the Gavin Strickmann inbox… And then the fun really starts.

Seriously, I’ve not been confronted by an album from an artist I’ve never heard of – and I’m ashamed to say until that fateful moment my dialup services crackled into life FitR had completely passed my by – as good as this in quite some time.

Fronted by the fabulously self assured vocals of Avirop Basu, Fire In The Radio erupts out of the traps with a delirious mix of names like Skid Row, Dokken and Def Leppard; Viper’s Kiss is an invigorating opener, Cupid Have Mercy a delicious semi-ballad with classy songwriting touches and a super-authentic production from guitarist  Shambo Roy Choudhury, Basu and drummer Dhritiman Som that’ll have you certain that this album was actually released in a parallel universe in 1987…

This production really comes into it’s own on the more ‘progressive’ numbers to be found in the set; Drives Me Crazy (which comes equipped with some nice, upfront bass work from Nilavro Ghosh), Wings of Freedom and closer Sweet Memories all sound positively huge, with the pomp/prog metal of Wings of Freedom in particular delivered with a staggering amount of pizzaz and maturity. Lillian Axe meets Fifth Angel? I’ll ‘ave some of that! It’s only February, I know, but if this track is up there amongst my best of 2025 in December then we’re in for a very good year indeed…

Of the simpler, more direct material Red Hot is a sizzling, sleazy success, and features the guitar work of Choudhury and Suvojeet Das to good effect, but the funk-rock cockiness of Dressed To Kill just doesn’t convince the listener that this is where the hearts of the band really lie. However one missfire out of ten is a pretty good strike rate, and I’m sure that Fire In The Rodeo are going to find a place in a good many record collections this year with this album. Make sure yours is one of them!

 

Fire in the Rodeo releases on February 24th.