Bonfire

In the closing years of the 1980s, Bonfire ranked among the most celebrated melodic hard rock groups worldwide, as their opening effort Don't Touch That Light from 1986 and the immediate successor Fire Works in 1987 attained genre-classic standing. The ensemble suspended work in the first half of the 1990s, yet resurfaced during the subsequent decade with fresh momentum and an unwavering drive for live performance, thereafter issuing a succession of respected studio albums such as Strike Ten in 2001, The Räuber in 2008, and Fistful of Fire in 2020.

Established in Ingolstadt in 1980 under the original designation Cacumen, the lineup shifted across the years, leaving founder Hans Ziller as the sole unchanging member. Frequently likened to fellow loud-rock proponents Scorpions, Accept, Whitesnake, and Saxon, the act delivered its pivotal debut long-player, Don't Touch That Light, in 1986. Three further albums followed—Fire Works in 1987, which logged thirty weeks on the German Albums chart, Point Blank in 1989, and Knock Out in 1991—before the band entered a temporary hiatus prompted by the ascent of grunge and alternative rock.

Activity resumed in 1996 with the aptly titled Feels Like Comin' Home, quickly trailed by Rebel Soul in 1998 and Fuel to the Flames in 1999. The new century found Bonfire maintaining an accelerated release schedule that encompassed numerous LPs and concert documents, among them Strike Ten in 2001, Free in 2003, Double X in 2006 marking their twentieth anniversary, and the ambitious rock opera The Räuber in 2008. Glorious, their fifteenth studio album, appeared in 2015; thirty years were then observed in 2016 via the first double album, Pearls, which presented newly recorded renditions of signature tracks. Byte the Bullet, an AFM Records collection of fresh original material, arrived in 2017, followed by Temple of Lies in 2018 and Fistful of Fire in 2020.