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Red Rose: Anniversary (EP)

Melodic Hard Rock/AOR

3.0/5.0

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Unsigned / Self-released
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 05.03.2015

In between albums and to celebrate five years in the music biz, Red Rose offers a short EP of four tunes, Anniversary. It's more of their catchy AOR melodic hard rock, which they are quite skillful at doing. But, I'm wondering, to continue the theme, why not five songs for five years?

Red Rose

The great thing about an EP is that it allows for a quick survey of the songs. Both Never Surrender and Everything Can Change are more straight forward rockers, with good groove, catchy melodies and refrains, and tasty guitar solos. The longer Make You Believe dials back the tempo some, going for something of an ballad blended with anthem, but without something within to necessarily grasp your attention. I'm wondering if the length could have been trimmed as well. At The Crossroad was the bump in the road. It's closer to a true ballad, gentle and deliberate in the front end. It picks up the riffage after this only to lead to a keyboard solo, one of those squeaky rubbery ones that I find so annoying. So maybe two or three out the four songs really grabbed me. Actually, this EP sounded like somebody came up with a good idea, the anniversary album, but things were to hastily put together. Here's hoping the next full-length album will be better.

Red Rose - Never Surrender

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This EP sounded like somebody came up with a good idea, an anniversary album to celebrate Red Rose's five years, but things were to hastily put together. Here's hoping the next full-length album will be better.

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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 ]