In designing this supergroup, the powers that be could have gone two ways – the Damn Yankees melodic hard rock route, with a more prominent role for Jack Blades’ vocals; or the Journeyesque AOR/melodic rock route, which is what this sounds like.
With superstar drummer and vocalist Deen Castronovo taking on the vast majority of all vocals, Revolution Saints offers Journey fans something with a little more bite.
I would have preferred a Damn Yankees model – where members wrote the songs and were fully utilized and the band had their own identity.
Revolution Saints is very much Deen and Alessandro Del Vecchio’s baby and while once again Alessandro has crafted a strong set of melodic rock friendly songs and a big production, there doesn’t appear to be much of Jack Blades’ personality on here past the opening anthem Light In The Dark.
Doug Aldrich shreds and riffs like the magician he is, but this is Deen’s record. Damn the boy can sing! Whether it’s the uptempo anthemic material or the slow, resolute ballads, Deen gives Steve Perry a run for his money.
Highlights include the perfect stadium anthem Light In The Dark, the slow dark and moody Freedom, the exquisite Journeyesque ballads Wouldn’t Change A Thing and Can’t Run Away From Love, the harder edge of rockers Take You Down and The Storm Inside.
The new album is far more uptempo than the debut, but I still probably prefer that release as the rockers here are good – but there are times where I find my attention drifting when some of the songs tend to sound very similar.
Overall, this can be described as another great slice of European produced melodic rock – even if the 3 principle musicians are all Americans. It doesn’t push any boundaries, but it’s not meant to. The sole purpose of Revolution Saints is to deliver a Journey friendly album of commercial 80s style melodic rock and let Deen sing his heart out. That is delivered with ease and for that reason, fans will love this record.
