Red Sun Rising Doesn't Forget To Remind Us Of What Matters

From Akron, Ohio we get Red Sun Rising back in the soup of what we call rock and roll lunacy. From "Polyester Zeal" I give you "Amnesia". It is a thoughtful meditation on applying the whole Carpe Diem mantra to everyday life, to making hay while the sun shines. Ryan Williams has a mean spirited guitar swagger going here. It's the main reason why "Amnesia" scores so vehemently. Whatever lead vocalist Mike Protich lays down on the lyric sheet, Ryan chomps into his instrument with a malevolent fervor the likes of which only the Kirk Hammetts of the ax slinging hemisphere would relate to. Take a really close listen and you know Ryan means business.Drummer Pat Gerasia doesn't skimp on ferociousness either. His skin bashing gives "Amnesia" its crackling urgency. In fact urgent sums the cut to a t. Got a must do item? Don't hesitate to put the plan into action. Feel unrequited love for a blond bombshell? Don't hesitate to let that someone know she's front and center in your mind. Don't write your life story and have regret spill over most of the pages. We all are dumbfounded at the speed with which our day in the sun can escape through our fingers. Mike merely wants us to maintain the appropriate perspective. Ricky Miller takes his bass and applies scowl in all the right places. Again, it's a reason why "Amnesia" isn't your garden variety rock number. There's a brain underneath those metal menace mouths. I highly endorse the well blended melody hard at play. The players know their cues and execute them perfectly. No problem following alongside this medium rare pacing. Mike comes into his own at the chorus as his voice adopts new drama that heightens the urgency already going on in the studio. Check out how driven he becomes at the juncture where he utters "moment in time". He hits a whole new level of bloodletting. Knowing how to maintain rock credibility amidst a landscape where the tried and true brevity of life theme looms large proves to be a trick Red Sun Rising has got down to a science. This band applies fresh paint on an old house that's been weather beaten by this message more often than any of us have in our collective memory banks. Why we keep being lured in stems largely from this notion that here and there we need reminders, gentle or otherwise that time is the currency all of us have and it's not a limitless means of spending. We'd best speak our peace and then step away from the card table, content that we've played the best hand we knew how. Never again will you hear "nothing" described as "fun". Most people shudder at finding so much as one moment left unoccupied. Stillness of heart gets them a little uneasy, as if Armageddon would be preferable. Red Sun Rising need not worry about our suffering group amnesia as it pertains to this song. "Amesia" merits a heady spot in our memories because Mike and his mates awaken mass complacency by appealing to our rational side, the side that knows our futures are right now. Squandering them would be a regrettable fool's errand.