Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: August 6, 2021
Production: Blood Red Saints
Album length: 48:31 min.
Genre: AOR/Melodic Rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Blood Red Saints are a British AOR and melodic rock outfit, founded in 2014 by singer Pete Godfrey and bassist Rob Naylor of Angels or Kings. The band took its name from the famous speedway racing team The Blood Red Saints, which was founded in the late 1920s in Brooklyn, New York. James Martin (Vega) came on board, and the band landed a deal with Frontiers Music Srl. for their debut “Speedway”. That impressive first outing followed in the sonic and stylistic footsteps of cult British AOR acts like Dare, FM and Newman. The band later put out two very well-received albums, “Love Hate Conspiracies” and “Pulse”, both on AOR Heaven, and now they return to the Frontiers Music Srl. fold with their fourth record.
In their relatively short run, the band has gone through a few lineup shuffles, and Godfrey, who is first and foremost the vocalist, has also taken over bass duties. Blood Red Saints now have two guitarists in the ranks, and even though they get filed under the softer side of rock, the arrangements are thoroughly laced with more than impressive guitar phrasing. Even with a few cult names of British AOR listed in the paragraph above – we can safely add at least Strangeways, Shy and Heartland – Blood Red Saints still have some more modern production instincts, and stylistically – that is, in terms of songwriting, if we really are looking for parallels – they’re closer to the likes of Vega, or the new Lionheart album, and also the last album by the (retired) Airrace.
What’s so appealing about “Undisputed” is the fact that it’s brilliantly detailed from head to toe. Polished. In a genre with not much wiggle room when it comes to experimenting and confessional adventures, the band has strung together an enviable harvest of musically varied lead motifs over a good 48 minutes, and those are what build the songs themselves. The band’s exceptional strength in achieving hypnotic, musical seduction lies in the skillfully added vocal hooks and harmonies, which they use especially on the choruses and with which they lift the dynamics already in the pre-chorus (transitional) sections. In moments like these – the title track is a perfect example – parallels with Def Leppard and Danger Danger are possible too.
Love Like War and/or Karma, an otherwise excellent hard-hitting ballad, grab you with intensity, thanks to those backing vocal harmonies in the chorus melodies. It’s as if both were carved in the likeness of the cult act Shy (especially because of some of Godfrey’s vocal lines). All the songs can boast an incredibly accomplished build-up of drama on the verse – (pre-chorus) – chorus axis, with chorus melodies that grab you hard in their musicality and in which the band reaches absolute bombast. An atmospheric crescendo, for instance. The album is full of pomp, and in the eighties Blood Red Saints would have been a huge sensation with this approach. The album literally flies. From song to song, it simply doesn’t know any dips in quality. In 2021 it feels like it got lost in time and space.
All the true-believer AOR die-hards have to check out “Undisputed”, because they’ll be fully fascinated by it. Especially if they’re on the same wavelength as the other bands named in this review. Blood Red Saints are a real team, a proper unit. A quartet that senses and complements each other’s ideas extremely well. And you can feel that in the exceptional coherence of the songwriting and arranging. In the high degree of variety within a tried-and-tested, many-times-tested musical recipe, which, in this kind of (cunningly seasoned) packaging, fascinates brilliantly. Definitely one of the peaks of the AOR genre.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. This Ain’t A Love Song
2. Love Like War
3. Heaven In The Headlights
4. Breathe Again
5. Caught In The Wreckage
6. Karma
7. Come Alive
8. Alibi
9. Undisputed
10. Complete
11. All I Wanna Do
Lineup:
Pete Godfrey – vocals, bass guitar
Lee Revill – guitar
Neil Hibbs – guitar
Andy Chemney – drums
