• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

January 2025

• Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

October 2024

• Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
• DGM: Endless
• Daytona: Garder la Flamme
• Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
• Frost*: Life In The Wires
• Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
• Fans Of The Dark: Video
• Radioactive: Reset
• House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
• Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire

September 2024

• Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
• Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
• Eclipse: Megalomanium II
• SteelCity: Reverence
• Hydra: ReHydrated
• Heartwind: III
• Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
• Find Me: Nightbound
• The Nail: The Nail
• Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
• Stryper: When We Were Kings
• Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
• Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
• Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly

[ More Music Reviews ]

Red Rose: Live the Life You've Imagined

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR

3.5/5.0

Bakerteam Records
Website Facebook MySpace
by Craig Hartranft,  10.17.2011

Hailing from Israel, Red Rose is, by definition, a young and upstart band. They formed in 2010 and have now released their debut album Live the Life You've Imagined, on Bakerteam Records, a division of Italy's Scarlet Records, only a year later. Pretty good start? Yeah, I would think so.

Above, Red Rose: Thanks to Photoshop, looking quite stylish.

While Red Rose's quick rise to a label contract is obvious, their musical style is not necessarily so. Certainly the larger category is melodic hard rock, straight out of the Eighties. The opening number, Turn Back the Time, certainly favors this description. It also adds that famous big arena sound that made the decade famous. Then, Red Rose fiddles with a metal edge on the heavier Name on the Stone. This song also could fill a stadium with its immense layers. Later, both The Last Drop and Dreamer blur the melodic hard rock with AOR sensibility for rather delightful and entertaining results. The album ends with a lighter tune, When the Sun Goes Down, complete with acoustic guitar and, gasp, what sounds like a tambourine.

Ultimately, what's astonishing is that this band was able to put together, rather quickly, songs so solid and representative of the genre. But even with eight songs, at 35 minutes, it's a rather short album.This might make one wonder if Red Rose is not simply a 'flash in the pan:' bright and brilliant for a moment with no sustainability. Let's hope not, for one simple reason: there's some fine talent here.

Bottom line: I liked this album. Red Rose has the talent and creativity to create entertaining melodic hard rock. Recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

While short on content, Red Rose's Live the Life You've Imagined is large on fine melodic hard rock. There's sound talent and creativity here. Here's hoping for more.

Alphabetical Index

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]