Album review: RUBY DAWN – Blood On Water

Self-released [Release date 01.11.24]

Hailing from Wokingham in the UK, Ruby Dawn are a rather fine progressive/art-rock band consolidating their progressive credentials with this follow-up to 2023’s ‘Beyond Tomorrow’, which, from all accounts, was an excellent debut in itself.

Fronted by unconventional vocalist Carola Baer – whose voice sounds like an interesting amalgam of Maggie Bell (Stone The Crows) and a more powerful Kim (Bette Davies’ Eyes) Carnes – the band sound like a well-seasoned and road-tested outfit with little, if any, naivety when it comes to song structures, lyrics and musicianship.

In fact, it’s hard to believe this is only their second album – so assured is the performance.

The band don’t try to hide their influences under a bushel and it’s interesting to play “spot the influence” as the album progresses, but, by any measure, this is a unique sounding piece of work that could not be mistaken for anyone else.

I suppose if you had to throw a few hats into the ring, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, early Marillion and folk/goth rockers All About Eve are all in there, along with symphonic rockers Nightwish, but at no point does the album sound derivative.

Eleven tracks to savour and only two clock in at less than five minutes – giving the band a chance to explore and push the boundaries of each track and fully exploit its potential.

The low hum, single drum beats and gentle vocal that introduce opener ‘Juliet’ are unceremoniously shoved aside by a powerful guitar riff a couple of minutes in and the course is set for what follows.

There’s some superlative guitar work courtesy of Dave Salsbury – Gilmouresque, as on ‘Arms Of Love’, fluid on ‘Alice Came Home’ and the title track, chiming chorus-pedal work on ‘Maker Of Me’ and a soaring solo on ‘Social Disaster’.

The rest of the band are no slouches either and I would point you to two tracks in particular – ‘Easy Feels’ (strange title but we’ve all been there…) which turns distinctly anthemic towards the end and ‘Chronicles Of A Celestial Soul’ whose haunting intro heralds the album’s best track with an excellent bassline, Peartesque drumming and great slabs of guitar with Baer’s voice soaring over it all. Marvellous.

Mention must also be made of the sparkling recording – with every instrument and Baer’s voice captured to perfection, coupled with the lyrics – this is anything but verse, chorus, verse; more poetry set to music – and it all works beautifully.

As noted above, it’s hard to comprehend that this is only their sophamore album and, as female-fronted progressive rock bands go, Ruby Dawn are up there with the best.

It will be interesting to see where they take it next – if it’s any better than this, then success surely beckons. *****

Review by Alan Jones

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)