It’s hard to believe that Blackmore’s Night recently celebrated their silver anniversary and they commemorated that milestone with a fully remixed edition of their debut album Shadow Of The Moon in 2023. Now it’s the turn of their critically-acclaimed third album Fires At Midnight to get a spruce up; it is fully remixed from the original multi-track masters, giving the album a service that’ll ensure it will still sound fresh 25 years hence.

Usually I am not a fan of tinkering with history, an album’s charms can often be found in both its beauty and its warts, but the overhaul given to Fires At Midnight makes perfect sense. The remix given to this album is thoughtful and while you won’t find the songs acting in new, strange ways there’s a crispness in evidence that makes Fires At Midnight burn brighter than ever before. That becomes immediately obvious on opening track ‘Written In The Stars’ with Candice Night’s vocals sounding crystalline and ringing with the frequency of glass. It’s no secret that Richie Blackmore had an issue with vocalists and he could never quite find the correct fit, but with Candice you feel he has finally found his muse and the interaction between vocals and guitar is simply stunning. As a guitarist, Richie understands that sometimes it is not what you play, but what you don’t; leaving space for the listener to infer meaning and Fires At Midnight affords plenty of opportunity for that. Candice operates with the same ethos and their stepping back allows the music to come to the fore…and when the music is this good, that’s exactly where it should be.

Richie’s fondness for the Medieval has always been ever-present in his songwriting, but Blackmore’s Night has given him carte blanche to fully indulge in his neo-Medieval musings. Fires At Midnight contains an intriguing mix of the antiquated and the modern and subsequently we get covers of Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’’ and a reworking of Tielman Susato’s ‘Crowning Of The King’ and despite the four hundred years which separate these compositions, they rub along together rather well. Instrumental ‘Praetorius (Courante)’ (a reworking of German music theorist Michael Courante’s hymn) proves that Richie has lost none of his fretboard dexterity, while an Eastern flavoured ‘Benzai-Ten’ evidences a band in Blackmore’s Night refuse to be painted in a corner.

Making this the most comprehensive version of Fires At Midnight, this edition contains the two original bonus tracks, along with two cuts that have re-recorded vocals (‘Written In The Stars’ and ‘Fires At Midnight’). It’s actually to Candice’s credit that these two songs seem a little superfluous; her voice has been well tended and sounds just as strong (if not richer) as it did previously. A worthy reissue that’ll ensure Fires At Midnight will burn brightly for a long time.

• Fires At Midnight is released via earMUSIC on 27th September 2024.
• Official Website

Track List:

1. Written In The Stars
2. The Times They Are a-Changin’
3. I Still Remember
4. Home Again
5. Crowning Of The King
6. Fayre Thee Well
7. Fires At Midnight
8. Hanging Tree
9. The Storm
10. Mid Winter’s Night
11. All Because Of You
12. Waiting Just For You
13. Praetorious (Courante)
14. Benzai-Ten
15. Village On The Sand
16. Again Someday
17. Possum’s Last Dance
18. Sake Of Song
19. Written In The Stars (2024 New Vocal Version)
20. Fires At Midnight (2024 New Vocal Version)