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Red Zone Rider Red Zone Rider Review by Gary Hill I suppose these guys are pretty much guaranteed to have a fan base, even before anyone heard them. That’s because the lineup is legendary. The band is made up of Vinnie Moore (guitar) (UFO), Kelly Keeling (vocals and bass) (Michael Schenker Group, King Kobra) and Scot Coogan (drums and vocals) (Lita Ford, Ace Frehley). The question is, how is the music? Honestly, this is a great album. It’s nothing Earth shattering in terms of originality, but the hard rocking, classic sound is done extremely well. If you like 1970s styled hard rock, you should love this. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Hell No They bring this in with a smoking hot blues rock groove. That concept holds the track throughout and it really rocks plain and simple. The guitar solo section on this is purely on fire. The whole song just oozes cool.

By the Rainbow's End Here we get another killer bluesy hard rock jam. This is not quite the powerhouse the opener was, but it is no less cool by any means. It rocks like crazy, too. There are some elements here, though, that make me think of a little of both Uriah Heep and Sweet.

House of Light More of a melodic rather than riff driven jam, this has some screaming guitar hero soloing mid-track. It’s another classy tune with real classic rock stylings built into it.

Cloud of Dreams This is a bluesy rocker that’s a bit ballad-like. It’s very much a classic rock tune. It’s also very strong. There is more intricate and smoking hot guitar soloing included on this beast.

Save It There is no huge change here. Instead, we’ve got more hot classic rock stylings. The keyboards do get a more prominent role here, though. It’s also got some great vocal hooks. There is a bit of funk in the mix on this number, too.

Never Trust a Woman This riff driven hard rocking song isn’t anything overly new or original. It is, however, so well done that it doesn’t matter. This is killer stuff.

Obvious Here we’ve got more of a glam rock melodic tune. This is good, but not as potent as a lot of the rest of the music here.

The Hand That Feeds You This cut from the more hard rocking cloth. It’s another, though, that doesn’t stand up as well as some of the rest.

Hit the Road Now, this is more like it. There is a bit of funk in this. The vocal arrangement has multiple layers and really works well. The whole piece is just very classy.

There's a Knowing A classic rock power ballad, this one feels a lot like Uriah Heep to me. It’s good stuff, overall, but not as good as some of the rest.

Count's 77 Here we get another straight ahead hard rocker. It’s a good cut (perhaps a bit in the Humble Pie vein), but again it’s not as strong as some of the rest.

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