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: : Revolution Road : :
 Rocket
Scientists is a band based in the US, that have a history going back
almost 20 years. The regular members of the group are all well known
musicians, and keyboard player Erik Norlander may be the member most
familiar to the public at large. Revolution Road is their 5th release,
and their first release in 7 years.
Musically
Norlander's synth work is a dominating feature in all songs here. He
produces lush backdrops that fills out the soundscapes, plays a mean
hammond in several songs, makes dramatic and bombastic epic melody lines
seldom heard on this side of ELP as well as lots of soloing of the more
swirling type. On quite a few songs, there are also more modern sounding
synth-based sounds spicing the soundscape, and on many tracks the piano
is a central instrument as well.
The guitar-playing
on this release seems firmly based in 70's hard rock; with many songs
having acoustic as well as electric guitars playing; somewhat similar to
what a band like Uriah Heep did back in the 70's. The vocals on some
tracks here also gives me that Uriah Heep vibe.
Summarized this would add up to music firmly based on 70's hard rock;
heavily spiced with prog keyboard workouts.
As this is a
double album, there are quite a few songs on this release; and the
individual songs here are somewhat varied in quality. The opening 5
tracks on this release represents the least interesting songs here in my
opinion. None of them bad, but none of them really standout tracks
either. But then the title track kicks in, and from that point on this
release steadily grows in quality. There's not too many real killer
tracks here though, but quite a few good and engaging songs.
When checking this
album out, title track "Revolution Road" and opening track on CD 2
"Castles Fall" as well as closening instrumental "After the Revolution"
will give a quite good impression of what this release is all about. One
killer track worth listening to as well is "Gypsy".
Rating: 7 (out of
10)
Reviewer: Olav Björnsen
: : Visit the Artist’s
Website :
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: : Discography : :
Revolution Road (2006)
Oblivion Days (1999)
Earth Below and Sky Above: Live in Europe and America (1998)
Brutal Architecture (1995)
Earthbound (1993) |
