When is a band not a band? It's not a riddle, but a question that needs to be asked when a bunch of talented musicians are drawn together by a record company head honcho to make a specific sounding record. That's the case with Revolution Saints, whose eagerly anticipated debut exemplifies the flaws with these purpose-built projects.
Italian record label Frontiers has been the buzzing epicentre of melodic rock and AOR for nearly two decades. Whether snapping up older acts like Whitesnake, Journey and Night Ranger or pushing new talent in the form of Crazy Lixx, Issa and Eclipse, they deserve huge credit for the genre’s resurgence.
Label president Serafino Perugino enjoys the occasional dabble in playing Dr Frankenstein, taking artists, writers and producers from his mouth-watering roster and splicing them to produce genetically engineered monsters.
Sometimes, he strikes gold, but often the results are well executed cut and paste jobs that tick the requisite genre boxes without ever feeling vital or organic. Revolution Saints are the latter, and it's a damn shame as the talent involved is capable of much more.
The original idea sprang from Perugino’s desire to hear a solo record from Journey's singing drummer Deen Castronovo. Soon after, Night Ranger’s Jack Blades and former Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich entered the picture.
The results are indicative of why these schemes rarely work, starting with the fact that the songs were largely composed by Frontiers’ in-house producer AlessandroDelVecchio. Furthermore, each member worked on their parts separately before stitching it all together in the studio, meaning that the chemistry and character of an interactive creative process is lacking.
Perugino is a huge Journey fan, and you can almost hear him saying: “We won't be getting a new Journey album for a while, so can you guys make something like that?” From the songwriting style to the fact that Castronovo's voice is a mixture of their former vocalists - StevesAugeri and Perry - that's exactly what they've delivered.
This identity crisis isn't helped by Journey's ArnelPinda and Neal Schon contributing to the admittedly excellent You're Not Alone and Way To The Sun. It further undermines the fact that – for all the marketing potential it affords – this isn't a proper group at the moment.
That said, the album achieves what it set out to, with songs like the sun-kissed Dream On and stirring Blades/Castronovo duet Turn Back Time sure to entertain less discerning AOR die hards. Strangers To This Life, meanwhile, pumps out Survivor training anthemics, Here Forever is a moody, stomping rocker and In The Name Of The Father is the best ballad Deen's mother band never wrote.
This record will certainly give Journey junkies a fix until their favourite group drops anchor in the recording studio, but – given the personnel involved – it goes down as a missed opportunity to rise above the formulaic and fashion something special.
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