Journey - Eclipse

[yorost]

First review I'm aware of is in, of course from Andrew over at melodicrock.com.  He had the exclusive first sample for the album, too, which you can find floating about.   I don't always agree with Andrew, but he is usually a rather fair reviewer. 

I've been excited based on comments Schon has been making over the last couple of years.  This is, if nothing else, a confirmation that the hints he has been dropping were spot on.

Album is due in May.

https://forums.melodicrock.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=50671

Ok.

ECLIPSE is a MASTERPIECE.

There...I've said it.

The difference between Revelation and Eclipse is the same difference between Generations and Revelation. It is simply stunning.

This has been on daily constant rotation for a while now....it has plenty of time to sink in or wear off and it simply gets better and better. It's RAW though...well mixed, with so much going on, but it has such raw energy.

As Don quoted from my Twitter feed - it is heavy....but VERY melodic. The constant wall of guitars on this record is unbelievable. EVERY song features wailing solos and rocking riffs. The songs are LONG. Most over 6 mins, a few under.

The live YouTube clips are MUD compared to the finished product.

It is one of the boldest, bravest moves I have heard from a classic rock band. Maybe EVER as far as a band of this age. There are so many twists and turns, it is almost progressive in places. This record will likely scare the shit out of middle-America and the Perryloon fan club members.

It's dark and moody and heavy, but melodic and uplifting at the same time.

It features some utterly amazing guitar work. Neal sounds like 5 guitarists in one on some tracks. So much to absorb. Deen is a frickin machine. He has never pounded so hard on those skins, not even in Hardline.

Arnel - fuck me. What a stunning vocal performance. STUNNING. His vocals are a MILE in front of Revelation (and how good were those anyway!).

There is no way this band could EVER have recorded tis album with Steve P. No offence to Steve, but it simply rocks so much and Arnel is pushed the outer limits of human ability with some wailing vocals. And you know what - he spends a lot of the album signing in his own natural timbre, not trying to be SP or anyone else. And it works so well.

The songs - not one week moment on there at all. Not one song I would ever skip due to any particular mood. It has to be played thru from start to finish every time - but you'll need over 60 mins to do so!

More thoughts to come - but this has to be considered a classic. Simply put - it is one of the FINEST albums I have heard in my time running this site and has immediately declared itself to be one of my favourite Journey albums EVER.

[KevShmev]

I am always wary of a review that is that glowingly positive, but being someone who hasn't heard a new thing Journey has done since the mid 80s, this could be interesting...

[yorost]

Well, Andrew got in a public fight with Def Leppard over a bad review of their covers album.  They were upset because they gave him an early copy and he didn't review it well.  He's even had trouble with labels pulling advertising from him because of bad reviews.  He can get excited, that's true enough, but he isn't anywhere close to an everything is great kind of reviewer.

This also wasn't an official review of his, he posted it in his forums.

I'm not buying that it's that good until hearing it myself, nobody really should.  It's just promising to read.  Schon does a lot of great albums, though, and is one of my favourite musicians.  If he's the dominant driving force behind this album as a whole I have a lot of faith in it being very good.

[wolfking]

Is this Andrew you speak of the man behind melodicrock.com?  I always like to follow his official reviews, although sometimes I can feel he is a little over the top and biased with some of his reviews, but even then he's still not far off the mark.  I will be surprised if the official review for Eclipse is less than 100%.

Hopefully this album is better than the last one.  I didn't really care for that one that much at all.

[King Postwhore]

The 5 songs I've seen on youtube live seemed to have a very good rocking vibe with great melody and very good choruses.  So I'll get it.

[skydivingninja]

I am always wary of a review that is that glowingly positive, but being someone who hasn't heard a new thing Journey has done since the mid 80s, this could be interesting...

This.

[bosk1]

I am always wary of a review that is that glowingly positive

Same here.  And the fact that he considered Arnel's vocals on Revelations to be good really puts his taste in question as far as I'm concerned.

[yorost]

Is this Andrew you speak of the man behind melodicrock.com?

Yeah, that's him.

I am always wary of a review that is that glowingly positive

Same here.  And the fact that he considered Arnel's vocals on Revelations to be good really puts his taste in question as far as I'm concerned.

I think it's a bit of a stretch to start saying they weren't good.  Great? No.  Could have been better?  Yes.

[splent]

I felt the same way about Arnel.  Then again my father's biggest influence vocally is Steve Perry.  So I'm a bit biased.  But on Revelation Arnel just sounded bleh compared to Perry.  He did show potential though. 

Consequently, my dad will almost postively get this album (if he doesn't have it already)... he has pretty much every Journey album since Infinity, including Dream After Dream. 

[yorost]

Dream After Dream is a really cool project.  I really love the first track on it, even though it is, obviously, quite different.

I miss Augeri, to be honest.  Yeah, Generations was one of their worst records, but I do think his voice fit the band really well.  At least both Arrival and Red 13 had so many standout tracks.  Would have been nice if they rerecorded Greatest Hits with him instead of Pineda.

[bosk1]

Generations was a mixed bag for me.  I thought it had a small handful of REALLY good songs, but the rest of it was sort of generic feeling.  I miss Augeri as well.  The 2001 DVD is one of my favorite concert DVD's from any band, and I saw him with Journey twice and REALLY enjoyed the show he put on.  It's a shame his voice tanked on him and the guys weren't willing to wait it out.  I can fully understand why they wouldn't, but it's still a bummer.

[Orbert]

I felt the same way about Arnel.  Then again my father's biggest influence vocally is Steve Perry.  So I'm a bit biased.  But on Revelation Arnel just sounded bleh compared to Perry.  He did show potential though. 

Consequently, my dad will almost postively get this album (if he doesn't have it already)... he has pretty much every Journey album since Infinity, including Dream After Dream. 

Splent, what does your dad think of Arnel?

[yorost]

Generations was a mixed bag for me.  I thought it had a small handful of REALLY good songs, but the rest of it was sort of generic feeling.  I miss Augeri as well.  The 2001 DVD is one of my favorite concert DVD's from any band, and I saw him with Journey twice and REALLY enjoyed the show he put on.  It's a shame his voice tanked on him and the guys weren't willing to wait it out.  I can fully understand why they wouldn't, but it's still a bummer.

Exactly how I feel about Generations.

You're driving me nuts by keep bringing up the 2001 DVD, I can't find my copy to put it in!

I also saw them with Augeri twice, and once from one of the front rows right in front of Schon.  They played 5 or 6 tracks from Arrival that night, including Livin to Do.  Such a great concert, we kept turning around in shock at how the whole audience sounded like they knew the Arrival tracks just as well as the hits.

...and Higher Place live is just flat out awesome.  I love the song, sure, but in both concerts I was just left impressed with how well it works as a live song.

[King Postwhore]

Yea, I saw Journey with Augeri before Arrival came out and they were fantastic.  Foreigner opened and I was dissapointed with Lou's voice but he did have an excuse.  It was his first tour from surviving a brain aneurysm.

[King Postwhore]

Youtube Trailer for the new tour.  I'm liking what I'm reading and hearing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfMqsfozKMk


From Melodicrock.com

A CLASSIC ON THE HORIZON:
The buzz surrounding Journey's upcoming new studio album Eclipse has already started. Due out May 24 in North America via WalMart and Rest Of The World June 3 via Frontiers Records, the new album has been described by Neal Schon as "...a rock record...sounds amazing..." and by Jonathan Cain "a concept record with some spiritual themes to it…pretty tough, hard-hitting stuff." Band management described it to me as "very melodic.. but more rock...longer songs...".
Some very attention grabbing quotes there for long time fans of the band and of this genre in general to salivate over. But fans are often let down when the advance descriptions don't match the finished product. Well not this time!

ECLIPSE is a MASTERPIECE. There...I've said it. This is one bold, brave, challenging and exquisitely constructed album. Yes, it rocks. Like Journey haven't rocked since 1981...and then some. It is one of the boldest, bravest moves I have heard from a classic rock band. Maybe EVER as far as a band of this age goes. But it is still as catchy and melodic as ever. There are so many twists and turns, it is almost progressive in places. This record will likely scare the shit out of fans of Raised On Radio, it has big balls.
Eclipse is dark and heavy, yet melodic. Adventurous, yet familiar. Moody, yet uplifting. Simply bloody AMAZING.

This has been on daily constant rotation for a while now....it has had plenty of time to sink in or wear off and it simply gets better and better. It's a bit rawer than we might be used to from the ever polished Journey though...very well mixed, with a lot constantly going on, but it has such raw energy and power.
The constant wall of guitars on this record is unbelievable. Fans of Neal Schon are going to love hearing that EVERY song features wailing solos (sometimes several in one song) and truly hard rocking riffs. The songs are LONG. Most over 6 mins, a few under. It really does feature some utterly amazing guitar work. Neal sounds like 5-guitarists-in-one on some tracks. So much to absorb. And drummer Deen Castronovo is a frickin machine. He has never pounded so hard on those skins, not even in Hardline. I have no hesitation in saying that. The drumming on this album is brutal!
Jonathan Cain has delivered some of his finest lyrics in a long long time. I'm really struck by the depth of the lyrics on this record. It has a spiritual nature and deals with human emotions throughout, but there are some truly uplifting and inspiring lyrics in play here - no matter what the emotion of each song is.
Arnel Pineda - well, what can I say. Eclipse is one powerful record and Arnel is pushed to the outer limits of human ability with some of the vocals here. Even when wailing, the soul and emotion within his voice remains true. He spends a lot of the album signing in his own natural timbre, not trying to be Steve Perry or anyone else. But it is still 100% Journey and it works so well. What a stunning vocal performance. STUNNING. His vocals are a MILE in front of Revelation (and how good were those anyway!).

The songs - not one weak moment on there at all. Not one song I would ever skip due to any particular mood. It has to be played thru from start to finish every time - but you'll need over 60 mins to do so! Watch for the hardest rocking Chain Of Love; the heavy, dark mood of Edge Of A Moment (kinda Separate Ways 2011), the upliting feel good anthem Anything Is Possible (sounds like classic Joruney/Bad English AOR); the beyond description She's A Mystery (guitar/vocal acoustic track that turns into Rush meets Triumph!) and one of the most powerful ballads I have heard in years, with vocal power beyond description - Tantra. And of course the classic Journey style anthem City Of Hope, which is released as a single April 4.
But as stated, each and every track here is a classic on its own and favourite tracks vary from day to day.

Eclipse has to be considered a masterpiece. Simply put - it is one of the FINEST albums I have heard in my time running this site and has immediately declared itself to be one of my favourite Journey albums EVER. Stay tuned for more..

[King Postwhore]

New single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ASxUYZTe24&feature=related

[skydivingninja]

That's a really cool riff, and the new singer sounds great.  The chorus sounds a bit dated and cheesy though.  Actually the whole thing kinda sounds dated.  But its not BAD...

[yorost]

Pineda does sound a lot better than on Revelations.  My biggest gripe is actually that Schon's solo bit on the outro sounds too typical for him, although on the album I believe that is an extended section so it might be much better.  Like the transitions, though, and if that turns out to be a low to middle quality song on the album things will be all good.  I do want to hear the album version before judging it, as I remember the Higher Place radio edit being much weaker than the album version.  The album version for City of Hope is 1:20 longer.

Andrew at Melodicrock also had a sample that included Human Feel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZndOPEMYlXw

Human Feel sounds like it's a far better song, and that clip gives me the feeling this could be Deen's best album with Journey.  Tough to say with clips, but I'm very hopeful.

[King Postwhore]

I didn't know they had a youtube of the melodicrock link.  Cool.  From what I've read it's a guitar driven dark album for Journey.

[Nekov]

I saw them live last week. They played four or five songs from the new album and all of them sounded great. If the rest of the album is as good as those few songs, then it'll be a great one.

[King Postwhore]

Journey - Eclipse EPK (Official)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PWiEhzJkPU&feature=player_embedded#at=85

[King Postwhore]

New samples of the new album.

https://www.melodicrock.com/

[yorost]

I've gotten better at avoiding samples as I've gotten older.  Stinks when you hear a new song and then it falls into 30 seconds you've already heard a few times.   Have you heard them?

[King Postwhore]

I've gotten better at avoiding samples as I've gotten older.  Stinks when you hear a new song and then it falls into 30 seconds you've already heard a few times.   Have you heard them?

Yes.  I think it's a dark melodic album for them  and I think I'm going to love it.

[wolfking]

Bump.

[dongringo]

So I've been streaming Eclipse for the last couple days while waiting for the cd to arrive and I have to say...I'm floored. This is the best Journey album at least since Frontiers and quite possibly my favorite ever...waiting to hear it in good sound quality and soak it in first. But this is inspired stuff.

Stream:

https://player.radio.com/player/RadioPlayer.php?version=1.2.11091&station=32413

[wolfking]

Interesting.  I was going to pass on it, because Revelations did nothing for me.  I might have to reconsider that.  I will listen to it later.

[D_Halco]

Overall I dont think it's a good album...however I do think Ritual is one hell of a killer tune.

[dongringo]

Interesting.  I was going to pass on it, because Revelations did nothing for me.  I might have to reconsider that.  I will listen to it later.

I was going to pass too...haven't been interested in Journey in years and Revelations did nothing for me as well. But this is a very different animal, I'll guarantee you that.

[dongringo]

There's only 2 or 3 songs that sound run of the mill Journey of old to me. The rest of the album is incredible, although a couple songs are creepers. Some of these songs take a few listens.

Venus is one of the best instrumentals I've heard in awhile. I've never heard Journey unleash like this.

[wolfking]

I'll definitely check it out then mate!

[dongringo]

Overall I dont think it's a good album...however I do think Ritual is one hell of a killer tune.

Sorry, but imo Ritual is the worst song on the album. It's of the same cookie cutter formula of the past. The thing I love about this album as a whole is that it breaks that mold for the most part.

[dongringo]

I'll definitely check it out then mate!

Cool. Hope you like it. Stand outs for me are:

Edge of the Moment
Chain of Love
Tantra
Resonate
Venus
To Whom It May Concern
City of Hope
Anything Is Possible

[D_Halco]

Granted, yeah Ritual is maybe the most overtly classic sounding cut, but to me it is the only song where the music and lyrics form a cohesive whole on the album. Its also the only song to me that has any real life and vigor to it. Its a freewheeling song and it sounds like the band is having a blast. I dont get that vibe from any other track on the album, keep in mind this is just my POV, if others can draw more for themselves that's great! I understand what they were trying to do with Eclipse, I just think they failed. I still consider Generations the last REAL Journey album.

[Bolsters]

I'm not sure what I think of this yet. It's pretty different from what Journey has done in the past. I wouldn't say I dislike it, but I think it will take me a while to warm up to Eclipse. I just haven't felt compelled to listen to it more than twice so far.