Year : 2013
Style : Melodic Hard Rock
Country : Finland
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans + Video
Size : 144 mb
Bio:
"What would you do if you had lots of spare time and great musician friends around you? Well, we formed a band to play music we love; hard rock. Not reinventing the wheel, just playing and enjoying the kind of music we have grown up with."Guitarist Tomi Julkunen and Toni Bite came up with an idea to form a new band after Whitesnake concert when they realized their love for 80’s hard rock bands. With spare time in their hands they decided to write and record couple of songs just for fun. One song turned into two, two into three and soon enough they had albums worth of brand new hard rock songs.Like-minded bass player Jukka Hoffrén and drummer Miikki Kunttu joined them a bit later when it was time to start recording those songs in the studio. Singer Markku Kuikka was the last member to join the band in the fall of 2012. The Ragged Saints was born.The first album is ready for release, gigs are being booked and the future looks bright for the New Wave Of Finnish Hard Rock.Long live The Ragged Saints!
Album:
Usually Power Prog Records are specialized in guess what? Well, Power Metal with a strong emphasis on the Progressive style and on the innovative Music, but this time “The Sound Of Breaking Free” is clearly set to a more traditional kind of Metal, think Heavy AOR or melodic Hard Rock clearly rooted in the 80’s; luckily it’s in the pristine form with no cheesy gimmicks or stupid nostalgic link, just a damn fine disc with a bunch of great songs, in the good old fashion way… No, wait, I should write instead: in the Best way and nothing else.This relatively new label from Germany related with Nightmare Records in USA, is a young company focused on high quality music only, with a few but some great unexpected and astonishing acts, and they are about to do the magic trick, one more time, with the publishing of the debut album by Finland’s best hidden secret THE RAGGED SAINTS… This album is clearly another surprise, because the band is coming out of the blue, no big promos, no bla bla yada, only sporadic info sheets were spreading over the internet about them, and just one short announcement in the end of August… But everyone should check their 1st album or the risk is to miss one of the purest album in the Hard Rockin’ music genre for 2013.After releasing some of the most interesting albums of the last years, namely the amazing EUMERIA in 2011, AGE OF ARTHEMIS or RYGEL in 2012 and the superb “The Iron Cemetery” by ILLUSION SUITE and the reissue of SUPREMA and MAESTRICK in early 2013, here is ladies and gentlemen, the new sensation from Scandinavia THE RAGGED SAINTS.Their music is timeless but the sound mix crafted by Nino Laurenne (THUNDERSTONE / ex-ANTIDOTE) is modern and updated, however the original feeling is still here, organic and true, and the playing is obviously perfect as they are a team of trained players with many years of underground rocking experience under their belt, a countless shows performed with their original group (ADAMANTRA / MILLION DOLLAR BEGGARS / THE MILESTONES / KENZINER / STATUS MINOR etc…).The most remarkable element in their music is the vocals performed by one of my favorite singer coming from Finland, the utterly gifted and sensitive Mr. Markku Kuikka (ex-THAUROROD / ex-GRÖNHOLM) from STATUS MINOR (remember their killer album “Ouroboros” in 2012 –ranked N°4 in my final top), so you can expect some fantastic singing with an exceptional talent and a fine taste in the delivery, with also a stupendous amount of huge melodic hooks sustained by an effective choral to uplift the lead vocals.The band is tagged as Classic Rock but with “I’ll Never Give Up On Love” or “A Place Where I Belong”, I must say that, it feels more like a modern AOR with a punch in the guitar riffs reinforced with discreet keyboards arrangements that reveal a solid potential in easy listening, a real majesty sing-along and catchy choruses with always a mature touch and a positive attitude amplified by a sincere dedication from those experienced musicians and finally, I believe that's the most important thing I can write in order to convince you to spend your hard earned money on this silver platter.
Line-Up:
Markku Kuikka (Vocals)
Tomi Julkunen (Guitars)
Toni Bite (Guitars)
Miikki Kunttu (Drums)
Jukka Hoffrén (Bass)
Tracklist:
01. The Sound Of Breaking Free
02. A Place Where I Belong
03. Don't Let Me Go
04. I'll Never Give Up On Love
05. Love Won't Fade Away
06. We Are The Same
07. While The World Is Burning
08. New Beginnings
09. Never Walk Away
10. Before Time Goes By
11. The End
+ Video "Love Won't Fade Away" (Official Video)
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
