RA - From One 
by Keavin Wiggins

Five Star: A look at albums that are so good that they impress even the most cynical of critics. Very few albums are superior enough to obtain a five star rating but occasionally a band slips through the river of mediocrity that is the modern music industry and they produce an album that restore our faith in the future of rock! This series is a look at such albums. 

If more nu metal bands approached their music in the same way as RA then we wouldn’t hear all of the bickering and sneering about how much nu metal sucks. 

RA has similar elements to the most notable nu metal bands but where most nu metal bands seemed to have stopped somewhere early in their musical development, RA sounds like they kept on going and growing as musicians. The music goes far beyond the simplistic nu metal variety we have heard over the past few years and they have more in common with Faith No More than with Korn. At times they seem to bridge the gap between Kings-X and Tool. Not to say they are derivative of either group. RA is far more progressive than the nu metal pack but also have a keen ear for writing hooks that are undeniably addictive. 

Taking their name from the Egyptian Sun God, RA sprinkles some Middle Eastern influences into their music, especially with the intro to their first single “Do You call My Name” and at various other moments on the disc. They don’t go overboard with it and because of that it really adds a nice touch to a few songs and further differentiates RA from most of the current heavy rock bands. 

I’d just about given up all hope for what the major labels are releasing under the metal banner, always expecting a cookie cutter band that should be named Korn Jr. (Ok there are a couple of exceptions like Flaw and Nonpoint but for the most part major label nu-metal bands of the past few years have followed the same boring formula.) RA goes a long way to restore my hope for metal in the future.  It’s not the metal I grew up with but RA does seem like the natural evolution of the genre when you take Alternative rock’s influence into account. So in other words they seem to take some of the best elements of metal, prog and modern rock and create their own sound that showcases some great riffing, some amazing musicianship and arrangementswith some of the strongest lead vocals heard since before Cornel was raging against the machine. 

Although this CD was released late last year, I didn’t get my hands on to until a couple weeks ago. But I’ll go as far to say this is one of the best CD’s I’ve heard in the recent past and a really nice departure from what we have been hearing from mainstream heavy rock over the past couple of years. If I had heard this disc a couple of weeks earlier, It would have definitely been high on my list of the best releases of 2002. I guess we’ll have to wait until next year for that but it would be hard to top this CD. 

RA have really outdone themselves with this debut album and it’s hard to imagine them topping this effort. Hopefully this CD will enjoy the success it deserves and will raise the quality bar in 2003 for hard rock. God knows that needs to be done! 

So if you are a fan of heavy music with progressive flavors than RA is definitely the band to check out right now! 

Listen for yourself. Republic has put together an online album listening party, so you can hear the entire CD before you buy it. 
 
 

• Check out the "Do You Call My Name" video
• Listen to the entire CD
• Visit the Official website.
• Listen to samples and Purchase this CD online

Fan Speak:

Posted by rocknwhitie:
one of my friends had this cd and he recommended it, i didnt listen to it for like a year, then when i did, i discovered what i had been missing....this cd is awesome. i love everything about it, vocals, lyrics, music, im definately going to buy their next cd "Duality"