Reviewed By David Pearce

Artist – Red Rose
Album – On The Cusp Of Change
Label – Scarlet Records
Year – 2012

Track Listing:
1. When Roses Faded
2. Chasing Freedom
3. King Of The Local Crowd
4. Original Sin
5. Alone In The Night
6. This Bitter World
7. Don’t Believe This Tales
8. Seize The Day

RED ROSE’s style is a mixture of melodic hard rock and classic heavy metal, with a light progressive touch, taking inspiration a lot from the 80’. Beautiful melodies, heavy guitars, high clean vocals, extensive use of the keys and backing vocals, meaningful lyrics – all these define Red Rose. And this mixture finds a more solid incarnation in their new work, which is certainly a big leap forward for the band. Their debut “Live the Life You’ve Imagined” was released in 2011 (a year after the band has formed) under Bakerteam Records, and received a lot of positive feedback both from critics and fans. The new work, entitled “On the “Cusp of Change”, was recorded at ‘Jailhouse Studios’ with the renounced Danish producer Tommy Hansen (who has recorded the band’s debut as well), and he assessed the band’s progress saying that it “improved tremendously in all respects, including songwriting and performance”. The Brazilian master Jobert Mello skilfully transferred the album’s lyrical concepts and ideas into visual arts. Having a fateful (so it seems) trouble finding a drummer, the guys from Red Rose turn to a session musician. And for this second record Matan Shmuely the drummer of a known Israeli band ‘Orphaned Land’, takes the job of a drummer. With two albums on the list, Red Rose is ready to expand the live performance activity and build its way up to the big stage!

The album starts of with When Roses Faded this is the longest song on the album at 10:09, but it is a good solid song with some great vocals, some good quality riffs and solos and some good rhythm on the keyboards and the melodies are a joy to behold. The Second and Third songs on the album are Chasing Freedom and King Of The Local Crowd, both of these songs have some really good intricate pieces in them with the keyboards and the guitars. The vocals on these are top quality they have some really good lyrics and the beat instantly gets my head banging as the songs go on. The Fourth song on the album is Original Sin the song starts off with a bit of keyboard then gradually builds up and the vocals are again very well done. The intricate guitar work and the keyboards give this song a different dimension but a very good song indeed.

The Fifth and Sixth songs are Alone In The Night and This Bitter World, these songs are really good, they have some quality vocals and they are perfect if you want a “pick me up” from a hard day, the feel good factor really hits you in these Two songs. The Seventh song is Don’t Believe This Tales, it is a good solid song with some good melodies, guitar riffs and solos. The keyboards on this are out of this world really impressive and the vocals again are just what you need in this perfect. The Eighth and final song on the album is Seize The Day this song is a perfect ending to the album it is sung with passion and the guitar work is second to none also the keyboards are really do make the song a perfect ending to a perfect album.

Overall
This has got some long songs that range from Six minutes up to Ten minutes long. But I must say the songs are done perfectly they keep you engrossed at the way. They have produced these songs with some fantastic vocals, superb guitar riffs and solos and some very good quality keyboarding. Throughout the album the melodies have been outstanding. The album is well worth a listen and one I am really glad that I have heard it.

7 / 10

Members
Leve Laiter – vocals
Elnur Aliev – guitars
Deion Kristen – keyboards
Eli Reeve – bass

http://www.redrose.co.il