{"id":68110,"date":"2020-02-17T13:02:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T18:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=68110"},"modified":"2020-02-17T13:02:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T18:02:57","slug":"the-ragged-saints-sonic-playground-revisited-music-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2020\/the-ragged-saints-sonic-playground-revisited-music-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ragged Saints | Sonic Playground Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dan Skiba<\/span>
\n\u2014 Staff Writer \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\" The Ragged Saints hail from Helsinki, Finland, and were formed in 2011. Their first (and only) release, The Sound Of Breaking Free,<\/em> came out in 2013 \u2026 and it\u2019s been quiet in the band\u2019s camp until now. A long time in the making, but the new decade brings fresh music from The Ragged Saints in the form of Sonic Playground Revisited<\/em>. The band self-proclaims no desire to \u201creinvent the wheel\u201d, rather they just want to play music in the style that they have always loved.<\/p>\n

Being a \u201clabor of love\u201d, Sonic Playground Revisited<\/em> provides much to get excited about. Regardless of the topic, the band plays an up-beat form of Melodic Hard Rock, somewhat similar to Triumph and The Damn Yankees. Markku Kuikka has the consummate Melodic Hard Rock voice. It\u2019s raspy and passionate, yet smooth and easy on the ears \u2026 sonically Kuikka sounds like Michael Bolton back in his early Metal years. Kuikka shows he has range when the songs call for it and can pull back the reigns and communicate directly with the listener in a similar fashion to Bryan Adams (think \u201cSummer of \u201969\u201d).<\/p>\n

Musically, as expected from this genre, the drums and guitar work are not overly consuming, but not without balls either. Tomi Julkunen and Toni Bite man the twin-guitar wall of sound, and their playing is discernable, enjoyable, and well-produced. You won\u2019t find a \u201cbad track\u201d on Sonic Playground Revisited<\/em> \u2026 nope, just high quality Melodic Hard Rock from beginning to finish. And, when you\u2019re done with a full spin of this album, afterwards you just might feel a little better about yourself and maybe the world around you too. So, check it out!<\/p>\n

Genres: Melodic Hard Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nMarkku Kuikka \u2013 Vocals
\nTomi Julkunen \u2013 Guitar
\nToni Bite \u2013 Guitar
\nJukka Hoffren – Bass
\nMikki Kunttu – Drums<\/p>\n

Tracklisting:
\nNever Gonna Let You Down
\nLike A Spinning Wheel
\nTake Me With You
\nSecret In Our Hearts
\nJust Believe
\nAbsence Of Light
\nAlways Forever
\nPretending Diamond
\nTurning Cold
\nSupernatural<\/p>\n

Label:
\nAOR Heaven<\/p>\n

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

Hardrock Haven rating: [usr 8.0 size=20]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Dan Skiba \u2014 Staff Writer \u2014 The Ragged Saints hail from Helsinki, Finland, and were formed in 2011. Their first (and only) release, The Sound Of Breaking Free, came out in 2013 \u2026 and […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":68112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9075,15066,8594],"class_list":{"0":"post-68110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music-reviews","8":"tag-aor-heaven","9":"tag-sonic-playground-revisited","10":"tag-the-ragged-saints"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68110","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}