ECLIPSE [AKA: ECL1P53]

Well, I was one of those guys who thought Steve Perry could not be replaced. Note the past tense. Yeah, I changed my mind. It is ok that Perry´s voice and stage presence were the trademarks of the AOR Journey we all knew from the late 70´s and early 80´s (when I, like so many more, happened to find the band through radio playing). To me it was a sin to even think of this band without Perry (as much as Yes without Jon Anderson). However, I was already aware that the band have found a very capable ´substitute´ in the figure of Arnel Piñeda. Their previous album, Revelations was a good album and clearly showed that Piñeda knew how to emulate Perry´s voice and delivering very well. For those who witnessed their shows I heard he could be a very convincing frontman too. However, the feeling was that Journey became a cover band of their best years, producing good, but not outstanding stuff in latter years. Eclipse kind of erased that impression.

It´s not every day that you find a group that after 30 years of their peak delivers such a energetic and well written album of songs. If you´re waiting for a CD full of syrupy ballads, forget it! While the group kept they trademark melodic sound with great hooks, most of the songs here are excelent hard rock/AOR tunes with fine crunching guitars and powerful delivering by all band members. Piñeda is also singing a little more on his own way, not a mere copy of Perry´s which gives the album a more modern sound, with a little more personality than recent releases of the band (although sometimes I have the clear impression that I´m hearing Perry singing, specially on the slow numbers). I was quite impressed by the strong and versatile songwriting of veterans Schon and Cain (Piñeda helps on a couple of them). For the ones who doubts Journey´s members prowness as players, Schon wrote the last track, the instrumental Venus. Although there are some tracks that are better than the others, none is weak. Highlights are many, but I loved Edge of The Moment, Chain Of Love and the hard rocking of Human Feel.

With an excellent production and the band performing as if they were twenty or maybe thirty years younger, there is little doubt abut the specialness of this group. Fans of high caliber AOR in general, and Steve Perry-era Journey in particular, will love this album!

Rating: well, this is difficult. For an AOR album, this is surely a 5 star rating. For a progressive site like PA all I can say is you´ll find very little prog or experimentalism here (did anyone really expect something like that?). Anyway, for the sheer power of the music and the astonishing perfomances of all involved a less than 4 star rating would be unfair.

Fans of melodic rock, rejoyce!