Hump Day Hot Ticket: Revolution Saints “Freedom”

Band photo

In this day and age, there are a lot of rock supergroups out there—so much to the point where it almost seems there are more supergroups than the original bands they came from in the first place. So when yet another supergroup hits the scene, it almost becomes to easy to either cynically brush this off as another flash in the pan collaboration among artists who have seen better days, or to get lost in the shuffle altogether.

However, it can be said that supergroups can serve a useful purpose in today's musical climate. While on the one hand, they obviously have a built-in audience of fans from their “brand-name” bands, a supergroup can attract new audiences on two other levels as well. For one, you get the demographic of older music fans who bemoan that “there's no good music anymore”. Many of these people may not have been fans of the original bands, or maybe only liked one or two of the groups, so this brings them in out of curiosity, and introduces them to the talents of musicians they had once passed by, because the music was not to their liking. Then on the other token, you have the younger music fans, who consider the original groups to be “dinosaur bands”, and wouldn't be caught dead at their concert. Yet, under the guise of a supergroup, this is “new” music, and therefore, new to them. Now an audience who never would have given these musicians a fair chance when in their original bands, now they have been introduced to seasoned veterans in the rock world, without ever feeling as if they have fallen into a “Dad-band” pit trap.

One example of these many supergroups to crop up on the scene is Revolution Saints, consisting of some heavy hitters of ’80s hard rock: Doug Aldrich, of Dio and Whitesnake fame; Deen Castronovo, former drummer of Bad English and Journey; and Jack Blades of Night Ranger, and another supergroup, Damn Yankees. Put them together, and Revolution Saints is a perfect fusion of straightforward classic hard rock, and modern-day heavy aggression.

In the video for “Freedom”, the Saints rock out onstage while the lyrics flash upon the screen. The band is all smiles onstage, having a great time while the camera pans out to an enthusiastic crowd. A highly-charged, energetic tune that is sure to get people up on their feet!

For more information on Revolution Saints, visit their official website.

Special thanks to Wayne Joyner.

Femme-Metal Friday: MindMaze “One More Moment”

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A couple months back, I wrote about the Pennsylvanian band MindMaze, who are one of my favorites among the female-fronted bands from the U.S. Their enthralling mix of progressive and power metal combined with melodic hard rock makes it impossible to categorize this band into a neat little box. There is enough musical influence of certain genres to recognize it when you hear them, but never so much that you can instantly slap a label on it and define the music as being that particular thing. For many fans, this is the appeal of MindMaze, and what sets them apart from their contemporaries in the scene. For many fans of female-fronted metal who have grown tired of the countless symphonic-based bands, MindMaze is a breath of fresh air with a musical approach that is less classical music and more classic rock.

The year 2017 has been a productive year for the band: their third album, Resolve, was released; they embarked on a tour with Arkona and Sirenia, which brought them to their West Coast fans for the first time. Now they are about to launch a new Kickstarter project for an EP slated for release sometime next year. So I thought this would be a perfect time to review the band's lyric video for “One More Moment”, which was released a few months back.

MindMaze has some really beautiful ballads, and this song is absolutely stunning. The lyric video shows glimpses of the band playing piano, guitar, or drums, with some footage of Sarah singing the words that we see onscreen. There is also some graphic art of a face in profile, and what appears to be a withered tree in flames. I also like the way the graphics of the flames surround Jeff's guitar during its solo, making it look like his awesome guitar-playing causes flames to appear!

For more information on MindMaze, or to learn more about their Kickstarter, visit their official website.