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Rage Of Angels: Dreamworld
 Ten's original keyboard player Ged Rylands has created the Hard Rock act Rage of Angels and now they have a debut called Dreamworld. Rage Of Angles' first release features quite some list of guest vocalists and lead guitars.
The main line-up for Rage Of Angles consists of Ged Rylands on guitars, keyboards and backing vocals, guitarist Martin Kronlud, drummer Pera Johanssen and bass player Michael Carlsson. To the many guests appearing on this album starting with the vocalists Robert Hart (Bad Company), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Harry Hess (Harem Scarem ), Danny Vaughn (Tyketto), Matti Alfonzetti (Impera, Red White and Blues, Jagged Edge) and David Reed Watson. That leaves the lead guitarists and they are Neil Fraser (Ten), Ralph Santolla (Deicide,Obituary, Iced Earth), Vinny Burns (Ten, Asia, Ultravox), Martin Kronlud (Lover Under Cover, Reece Kronlud) and Tommy Denander.
Digitised speech and atmospheric keyboards lead into title track "Dreamworld" the first of many catchy rockers, "Falling" featuring Primal Fear's Ralf Scheepers is another likeable song and quite removed from his usual metal recordings though his vocals do give it a harder edge. The instrumental "Requiem for the Forgotten Soldier" gives a few of the guest guitarists a chance to shine.
Problem is I can't see myself sticking with this album, as there just isn't enough that I really like, or maybe I've just lost interest in the type of music and moved on. I find it hard with this form of melodic rock to get enthusiastic about it these days, some styles have aged better than others. While sure, strong performances feature throughout and "Dreamworld" is a solid hard rocker and many of the songs are the kind that you would expect to hear. I suppose for myself it's not that period anymore when this album would have slotted right into and this kind of cheery melodic rock was at its peak. So as you can tell from above Dreamworld isn't the sort of album I would normally seek out, and even though this variety of music hasn't changed greatly for those that follow it that's the big attraction.
I'm sure that no doubt many will have a fondness for those songs on Dreamworld, and if so it will provide them with more of that entertaining friendly melodic hard rock.
Track list:
1. Dreamworld
2. See You Walking By
3. Through It All
4. Over and Over
5. Prelude for the Gods
6. Falling
7. The Beating of Your Heart
8. Spinnin Wheel
9. Requiem for the Forgotten Soldier
10. Martin Kronlud
11. We Live, We Breathe, We Die Hard
Added: February 9th 2013
Reviewer: Scott Jessup
Score: 
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 4362
Language: english
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Rage Of Angels: Dreamworld
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2013-02-09 14:25:19
My Score: 
In recent years melodic rock has thrown out a huge amount of project albums where guest stars use their vocal or guitar talents to garnish the songwriting endeavours of an individual song writer. Like them or loathe them, the truth is that these types of albums are here to stay, not least because they help labels sell CDs and artists and musicians to pay the bills. However not all of these projects are bad, with the best stemming from ideas that originally were intended as the music for a band, or solo album and so it is with one-time Ten keyboard player Ged Rylands and his project Rage Of Angels.
Now if we are in project territory, there are a couple of names we need to check for to make sure we are in safe hands. Firstly does Tommy Denander wield his axe on at least one occasion? Check! And secondly did the label this album is released through, Escape, use their man on the inside Martin Kronlund to sprinkle a little guitar and production magic? Indeed they did. Phew!
So who else is in town (or online) for Rage Of Angels and their debut effort Dreamworld? Well actually it is a cornucopia of melodic rock delights with Danny Vaughn (Tyketto), Harry Hess (Harem Scarem), Matti Alfonzetti (Jagged Edge) and previously unknown David Reed Watson all singing. Vocal wildcards showing up in the guise of Primal Fear frontman Ralf Scheepers and one-time Bad Company crooner Robert Hart to add a little welcome spice. Six-string wise let's try a little Neil Fraser (Ten), Vinny Burns (Ten/Dare), Ralph Santolla (Millenium) and of course Denander and Kronlund for size, while bass duties are handled by Michael Carlsson and drums by Pera Johanssen. So far it is all shaping up nicely, meaning that the pressure is on Rylands to come up with the goods for his ultra-talented guest list. Something that in the main he achieves, although there are a couple of areas of concern. The blueprint is late 80s early 90s melodic rock - no real surprise there - and neither is it a shock that the let's turn everything up to the max ethos that Ged's old band Ten swear by, is also relied upon. What this means is that for every stonking, sing along chorus, such as the Journeyesque, Vaughn led "Spinnin' Wheel" - a song that is uncannily similar to the Y&T track, "L.A. Rocks" - or bouncy, yet gritty AOR of "See You Walking By", where Hess takes the mic, you also get overly extended keyboard passages and exuberant guitar solos. That results in only one of the songs falling in at under six minutes and while instrumental "Requiem For The Forgotten Soldier", where nearly all of the guitar talent on show takes turn to dazzle and excite thrives at this length, the likes of the otherwise excellent Robert Hart fronted, "We Live, We Breathe, We Die", or "Dreamworld", with Alfonzetti on vocals, outstay their welcome. Ironically it isn't actually down to its relative brevity that the shortest track on the album "Falling", stands out as the best moment - Ralf Scheepers absolutely thriving in a slightly more melodic environment than that which we'd usually find him.
As a first outing Dreamworld finds Rage Of Angels looking like a very promising proposition indeed and with a few tweaks, this is one of these projects that actually you'd gladly hear more from. In fact rumours abound that soon we'll see the band - not project - with a permanent singer, something which will actually benefit them going forward.
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Rage Of Angels: Dreamworld
Posted by Simon Bray, SoT Staff Writer on 2013-01-31 06:23:18
My Score:
My colleague Scott Jessup calls this release, "entertaining friendly melodic hard rock." I couldn't agree more although I'd be somewhat more enthusiastic overall about this release than he is. Yes, some of the keyboard sounds are highly dated but a) I think they're supposed to be and b) they are very much part of the charm of an album which wears its 1980s influences on its sleeve hence the needle on vinyl sound at the start of the excellent "Spinnin' Wheel" which features the ever wonderful Danny Vaughn on vocals. It's particularly fine to hear Vaughn singing "proper" melodic rock much as I enjoyed the more rootsy Dig in Deep Tyketto record from last year.
"Rise Again" is the other song I'd like to highlight. It's the one which arguably screams 1980s the most especially with the opening keyboard sounds and the lyrical reference to the, "lonely streets without you." It's done with such commitment that I found both this song and the whole album fairly irresistible and of courses most of the kudos must go to main man Ged Ryland who has written the songs and organised the project so that it actually sounds like a band rather than a project despite the plethora of players on the album.
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