{"id":44302,"date":"2014-08-18T06:20:07","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T11:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=44302"},"modified":"2014-08-18T06:20:07","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T11:20:07","slug":"rubicon-cross-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/rubicon-cross-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubicon Cross | Rubicon Cross<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"RubiconIt\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve heard anything new from Firehouse, but vocalist C.J. Snare hasn\u2019t been sitting idle. Along with Furyon guitarist Chris Green (as well as guitarist Jeff Lerman, bassist Simon Farmery and drummer Robert Behnke), Snare has a new band called Rubicon Cross, whose self-titled debut is now available.<\/p>\n

Comparisons between Rubicon Cross and Firehouse are inevitable, given Snare\u2019s instantly recognizable voice and the fact that both bands play melodic rock. They\u2019re two very different animals though. Rubicon Cross isn\u2019t the kind of super-catchy \u201chair metal\u201d that Firehouse was, not will you find any Bic-flicking \u201cLove of a Lifetime\u201d style ballads. This is a harder edged rock album that\u2019s surprisingly ballsy. Yes it\u2019s melodic, but there\u2019s a real crunch to the guitars and a more modern energy overall that is reminiscent of Jake E. Lee\u2019s new band Red Dragon Cartel on some levels.<\/p>\n

While there is a pair of slower songs (\u201cMoving On\u201d and \u201cSave Me Within\u201d) that come close to the old Firehouse sound, the album is dominated largely by harder rocking songs like the catchy \u201cLocked & Loaded\u201d (which would be a great single if mainstream rock radio would ever touch it), \u201cR U Angry\u201d and the almost shockingly heavy \u201cKill or Be Killed.\u201d The only real oddball moment on the album is the closing song \u201cAll the Little Things,\u201d which sounds more than anything like an old Green Day b-side, and even that\u2019s a fun track for what it is.<\/p>\n

The Rubicon Cross debut is a very easy album to get into. Hearing Snare\u2019s voice again is enough to take some listeners back a couple of decades (and he sounds as good as ever here), and hearing it on top of these great driving hard rock songs is just too much fun to resist. The band has proven that you can have ties to the \u201880s rock scene without sounding like a retro act and can play modern rock without sounding soulless and monotonous. It\u2019s just a really nicely done melodic hard rock album, and one that ought to satisfy a wide array of fans of this kind of music. The CD is also priced extremely reasonably (between $6-7 at the moment), so you don\u2019t have much to risk by checking it out.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: There is a version of the Rubicon Cross debut that\u2019s exclusive to Best Buy stores and includes a pair of bonus tracks \u2013 acoustic versions of \u201cMoving On\u201d and \u201cSave Me Within.\u201d <\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Rock, Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nC.J. Snare (v)
\nChris Green (g)
\nJeff Lerman (g)
\nRobert Behnke (d)
\nSimon Farmery (b)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tLocked & Loaded
\n2.\tNext Worst Enemy
\n3.\tBleed With Me
\n4.\tSave Me Within
\n5.\tYou Will Remember Me
\n6.\tMoving On
\n7.\tR U Angry
\n8.\tShine
\n9.\tKill Or Be Killed
\n10.\tAll the Little Things<\/p>\n

Label: Raider Rock<\/p>\n

Website: www.facebook.com\/rubiconcrossband<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 7.75\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — It\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve heard anything new from Firehouse, but vocalist C.J. Snare hasn\u2019t been sitting idle. Along with Furyon guitarist Chris Green (as well […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[9209,2317,9863,1103,2901,9864,9862,9208],"class_list":{"0":"post-44302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-c-j-snare","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-cross","11":"tag-hard-rock","12":"tag-melodic-rock","13":"tag-raider-rock","14":"tag-rubicon","15":"tag-rubicon-cross"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}