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Red Zone Rider: Red Zone Rider
Red Zone Rider 2014 CD Album Review

Red Zone Rider: Red Zone Rider

Melodic/Blues/Hard Rock
4.5/5.0

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Magna Carta Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 12.09.2014

I'm sure it's happening as I write, defining Red Zone Rider as a modern super group, a power trio, of retro heavy rock. If not, there, I just did. Red Zone Rider features some quite talented and experienced artists. On guitar there's Vinnie Moore who's done time with Alice Cooper and UFO, besides having a significant solo career. Kelly Keeling, on bass, is another hard rock veteran with a resume that includes George Lynch, MSG, King Kobra, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Drummer Scot Coogan, another titan of the kit has worked with Lita Ford, Ace Frehley, and Brides Of Destruction. Yup. I'd call those dudes some hard rock heavy hitters.

Red Zone Rider Band Photo

Red Zone Rider: victims of Photoshop.

So, musically, what do we have with their self-titled debut? Kick out the jams like it's 1975, more or less. This is guitar-driven melodic heavy rock, with a nice slather of blues groove, like some North Carolina barbeque sauce, from Mr. Moore. Certainly, coming from this trio, the songs are developed as exactly that, a song. But Vinnie Moore has plenty of room to go crazy bonkers on that fret board. Much of his slick reminds me of his early solo albums, where he injected a keen sense of melody into traditional neo-classical shredding, and his most recent work with UFO, which has turned more to a blues-based band in the last 15 years. Underneath and alongside Keeling and Coogan keep the beat and groove, heavy and steady.

Pulling it all together and the songs are essentially groove monsters, often catchy, and definitely fiery with the guitar leads flying like some many bullets tossed into a hot campfire. Blues groove comes through on Hell No and By Rainbow's End; more straight hard and heavy rock with Hit The Road, The Hand That Feeds You and Save It, offering some catchy vocal arrangements; a slow burning balladish anthem comes with Cloud of Dreams, something that might make David Coverdale weep; and then Obvious sound like a hybrid, AOR blues heavy rock, with some of Keeling's smoothest vocals. The songs and music are at the same time both varied and bound by the common theme of classic melodic blues hard rock. This is how it's done. Recommended.


Red Zone Rider - By The Rainbow’s End


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In Short

Red Zone Rider's songs and music are, at the same time, both varied and bound by the common theme of classic melodic blues hard rock. This is how it's done. Recommended.

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