RED 13 (EP)

I rarely seek out EPs, especially not by bands I'm not a big fan of, but inspired by the previous reviewer I decided to give this four track EP by Journey a chance. While I have heard all of Journey's full length albums up to and including Escape from 1982, I have never bothered to check out their more recent albums. Coming 20 years after the release of Escape, this EP is surely a surprise for me! This music rocks harder and includes some of the most progressive music that the band has ever done!

The first track opens with an introduction that gives the EP its mysterious title; Red 13. This song features interesting exotic percussion, spacey sounds and atmospheric guitar lines, creating a dark and mysterious mood. This then moves into the main song State Of Grace that is based on thumping beat and a heavy riff with something of Far Eastern, and at the same time "spacey", flavour. The kind of riff involved together with spacey feeling reminds me slightly of Hawkwind! But it has a strong melody and some nice Beatles-esque harmony vocals on top. The whole thing clocks in at seven and a half minutes. It is very hard to believe that this is the same band that made Don't Stop Believing and Stone In Love 20 years back. But maybe it proves that one shouldn't stop believing, not even in Journey?

The three other tracks are far from being as good as the first one and they are a lot closer to what one might expect from Journey; melodic Hard Rock with good vocals and nice guitar work. Speaking of vocals, Steve Perry who was the voice of Journey since the late 70's is no longer with them here. While Perry had a very distinctive voice, new guy Steve Augeri (at least he has the same first name!) is a much more anonymous singer. However, he does a fine job on these songs. The Time and I Can Breathe are decent, but rather straightforward Hard Rock numbers with not very much interesting happening in them. Walking Away From The Edge is a ballad and the second best of these four songs here. It has a strong chorus and nice guitar work.

Journey are probably most well known for pure AOR albums like Escape from the early 80's, but in fact they have a very diverse career and they have done Jazz-Rock/Fusion (three first albums), Prog Related Hard Rock (Infinity and Departure) and even Symphonic Rock (the soundtrack album Dream After Dream). Red 13, especially its opening track, is a further positive anomaly in the band's output and a decent addition to a Prog collection. Hearing this EP has even made me want to check out Journey's more recent full length albums.

I rate this with two stars, but when I thus say that this is for fans and collectors only, I don't just mean the unconditional fans that love everything the band has ever done, but rather those Journey fans that are more likely to visit a Prog website.

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