I have been a fan of the Canadian band Red Sand since their first ever release and own all of their albums. In the beginning they sounded very much like early Marillion but without such a great singer. This was not in the least due to bandleader and guitarist Simon Caron who plays in the style of Steve Rothery and to a lesser extent David Gilmour. The albums from that time, Mirror Of Insanity (2004) and Gentry (2005) are still among the best they have ever made in my opinion. In the course of time there have been quite a lot of personnel changes, but especially the change of singer(s) has had a major influence on the band's sound. As more albums were released, the band got more and more of its own style and the sound shifted to some more Pink Floyd-like music such as on Crush The Seed (2020, see review) and The Sound Of The Seventh Bell (2021, see review). On all albums you can find long tracks that are deeply rooted in traditional prog, mostly accompanied by some shorter tracks. On those last releases, Steff Dorval was the singer and he had a somewhat higher and pinched voice, not really my favourite. Good news, there is a new album with a new singer, Michel Renaud and I like his voice better than Steff's. The band now consists of Simon Caron on guitar, bass and keyboards, Perry Angelillo on drums and Renaud as vocalist. Too bad no separate keyboard player has been recruited because Caron plays reasonably well but remains a guitarist, a very good one though. When studying the tracklist on Pain't Box, it is striking that there are four short to very short tracks and a very long one of more than half an hour as a closer. I wasn't very enthusiastic after the previous album and was very curious about this album. Opener Wake Up The Child is a great track in which of course the beautiful guitar solos of Caron are present and Renaud shows that he is a good singer. So a good start and with the short instrumental Us, with again great guitar work, we get a great continuation. Breaking Wings has a Pink Floyd vibe but with a clear Red Sand signature which results in a beautiful but far too short song. Of course we do hear one of Caron's great, melodic solos so this song is also convincing, just like singer Renaud. The short Poland is in fact a long guitar solo on an excessive bed of keys, beautiful. Finally the epic track Tie follows and it feels quite fragmentary, very nice melodies are interspersed with busier pieces that sometimes sound a bit unstructured and sometimes I even hear The Shadows Pass By.The acoustic guitar also serves as a solo instrument and Caron rages over the nylon strings, he doesn't do that very often. Somewhere in the middle we hear a nice keyboard solo but the following old school, bluesy passage does not touch me at all. Nice epic but not necessarily their best. As a lover of longer tracks, I would have liked to see a little more length added to the excellent first tracks of the album and with that I think the balance of the album would have been considerably better. That is actually my biggest point of criticism. However, this does not alter the fact that Pain't Box contains enough beautiful moments and thus somewhat exceeds the level of the penultimate albums. For me, as a fancier of Red Sand's music that leaves me with a simple choice, buy that CD. For those who like to hear more modern prog, it might all be a bit too recognizable and I do understand that. But as I have said before, good is good and if you enjoy listening to something, all further discussion is superfluous. With Pain't Box the Canadians have added another good album to their oeuvre and let's be honest, if you like wailing, sensitive and smooth guitar work then you just gotta have something by Red Sand in your collection. ***+ Erik Fraanje (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
