Firehouse Tickets - The Rise of the Rock Ballad

There's no doubt that hard rock/heavy metal hit a soft note with romantic tones in it to touch the tail end of the pop-metal explosion happening in the late '80s and early '90s; clearly Firehouse - with vocalist C.J. Snare, and band members Michael Foster, Bill Leverty, and Perry Richardson - embraced the call of a softer, melodious rock.

Firehouse Tickets - Their Sweet Tunes

Such staples as 'Don't Treat Me Bad' and 'Love of a Lifetime' became their signatures for that exact melodic hard rock, hitting the Billboard charts and sticking right in the Top 20 singles status. The term for them can be described as the 'rock ballad.' Even at a time when mainstream rock was enveloping a noisier and punkier feel, Firehouse's second album Hold Your Fire still managed to go gold. Three years later, the band made their third debut, Firehouse 3, emitting a softer sensibility, something similar to Extreme with their single 'More Than Words.'

Firehouse Tickets - How It Sounds in Your Ears

And that was the beauty of Firehouse -- you couldn't pin them down as a soft '90s rock band, nor a grunge hard metal band. They merged the styles successfully. Featuring powerful vocals and an uncompromising sense to explode the emotion on stage or in the recording studio, Firehouse definitely does set the house on fire.