Revolution Saints – Against the Winds
Revolution Saints – Against the Winds
Frontiers Music s.r.l.
Release Date: 09/02/24
Running Time: 48:44
Review by Simon Black
8.5/10
Revolution Saints came about because Frontiers label owner Serafino Perugino twigged that the one-time Journey sticksman actually has one hell of a voice and, spotting an opportunity, formed a Supergroup around him. Actually, to be fair, 50% of Frontiers’ output has this kind of background, and I guess if I was a little more loaded than I am, I would probably put shit loads of projects together with all my musical heroes too. The trouble I have with this incredibly prolific label, is it tends to utilise a core of Italian session musicians and producers who churn this stuff out almost constantly, with inputs from the aforementioned hero brigade, which sometimes means the quality of songwriting suffers from a lack of proper gestation that you get when a naturally formed act grind at it for weeks on end in a rehearsal room before hitting the studio.
But for every near miss, you get a sure fire back of the net hit, and this feels like one of them.
Perhaps this is because it’s only Frontiers stalwart Alessandro Del Vecchio (on keys and the Producer’s chair) from the session pack this time, with the rest of this incarnation of the project made up of Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson and Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra (both no stranger to the label either). Either way, from its opening bars, this feels like an album pulled together by a bunch of people who really know how Melodic Hard Rock should be played, straddling the old world 80’s feel and the more modern age perfectly. It’s the kind of thing that if it had been played on US Rock Radio 40 years ago, would have sent them up the Billboard charts like a rocket, but sadly this is the 2020’s and sales and streams are what counts, and there’s a shit tonne of competition in the genre (not least from their own label).
Even by Frontiers terms these guys are prolific, with an album only hitting the racks as recently as last year, but the sign of their experience is they can keep that rate of production without dropping the quality, and I can’t really fault a single track on here. The only downside is that the pitch and tone of the songs is pretty similar, and a bit of variety there would have gone a long way, but if you are going to pick this supergroup up on the basis of one or more members’ back catalogue, then you will have invested your money well.
Revolution Saints ‘Against the Winds’
TRACKLISTING:
01. Against the Winds
02. Changing My Mind
03. Fall on My Knees
04. Can’t End It Right Now
05. Lost in Damnation
06. Will I See You Again
07. Show Me Your Light
08. Save All That Remains
09. Been Said and Done
10. Diving Wings
11. No Turning Back
LINE-UP:
Deen Castronovo – Lead Vocals & Drums
Jeff Pilson – Bass
Joel Hoekstra – Guitar
Alessandro Del Vecchio – Keyboards & Backing Vocals
LINKS:
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