REVELATION

If you´re a fan of the Steve Perry era´s Journey, you can´t miss this album! Ok, I was quite skeptical about it too. After all, the band was trying to replace one of the rock´s most distintive and charismatic vocalists. And they were lucky to find a replacement once (Steve Augeri), so it would be a bit too good to have a third chance. But somehow they got it. Arnel Pineda has a voice that is strinking similar to Perry´s, as the second CD shows (where they rerecorded some of their better known songs. Quite a challenge!). He is no Steve Perry, ok, but you can say the band got the next best thing. More important, he is young and energetic, giving Journey a good shot of much needed passion.

But what about the songwriting? The new songs? Well, I must say Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain lost none of their knack to deliver some fine, melodic and captivating AOR classics. CD 1 could be Journey´s lost album from the 80´s (plus the modern recording facilities, of course). All songs are at least good and they bear the trademark classic Journey sound that made them one of the hotttest bands in that decade. The band is in great form, I must say. They lost none of their style, dynamics and conviction. Neil Schon guitar parts are the highlight: the guy has a unique way of playing and he is growing old like wine (just listen to what he does in the instrumental track The Journey). Production is absolute perfect for their sound. The cover is great too.

If PA was a AOR site, this would be a 4 to 5 star record. But since there is little prog here, I´ll give it 3,5 due to their outstanding musicanship. Very good album, but any proghead can live without it. If you´re into melodic hard rock though, then it´s a must have.