The Ragged Saints - The Sound Of Breaking Free

The Ragged Saints

The Sound Of Breaking Free

by YngwieViking at 07 October 2013, 7:13 PM

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 interpretation.

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.