RIDE THE SKY - SWEDEN

New Protection - 2007 - Nuclear Blast

Ride The Sky image
  
 
Members
Vocals
Tears Of Anger, Imaginery, Beyond Twilight>>BJÖRN JANSSON>>Tears Of Anger, Beyond Twilight, Vargton Projekt

Guitar
Xsavior, Johansson, Tears Of Anger>>BENNY JANSSON>>Tears Of Anger

Bass
Xsavior>>MATHIAS GARNÅS

Drum
Holy Moses, Mekong Delta, Shock Machine, Joker, Mumble-Bäh, Gamma Ray, Helloween, Roland Grapow, Axe La Chapelle, Beautiful Sin, Masterplan>>ULI KUSCH>>Issa, Mekong Delta, Symfonia, Last Union

Keyboard
Treasure Land, Stormwind, Dionysus>>Kaspar Dahlqvist>>Dionysus, Ilium, Nation, Shadowquest, Part Of This Machine, Perpetual Etude




History & Biography
Ride The Sky, a title inspired by the Helloween song, was a hard rock/AOR act based in Sweden, yet featured German drummer Uli Kusch who was an alumnus of the said German group. Kusch had his own studio and lived in Norway. The Jansson brothers had wanted Kusch, who had exited Masterplan, to contribute drums to the band Tears Of Anger. Kusch, in return, sent them a few musical ideas of his own, which became the genesis of Ride The Sky. The act recorded a song and shared it with record companies. Mathias, also ex-Xsavior, was recruited. The album’s cover artwork was handled by Thomas Ewerhard who has worked for Masterplan previously.

The band lasted between 2006 and 2008 and for one album. There was a keyboard player. That person was replaced by Norwegian musician Henning Ramseth of Ram-Zet for the European tour with Sonata Arctica and Epica in 2007. The band threw in the towel in April 2008 following a tepid response to its album. A statement blamed the record company’s support and members’ motivation. At Vance decided to call its 2009 album Ride The Sky too.


Reviews

RIDE THE SKY - NEW PROTECTION - NUCLEAR BLAST  
Nuclear Blast presents us with another one of those CDs where the songs, twelve in this case, are spread over 99 tracks. However, the question is having Uli Kusch and Co. manage to deliver a worthy offering. The early indications, as in the name of the band, are that Ride The Sky borrows very heavily from the background of the people involved. Ride The Sky shares the commerciality of Gamma Ray and countless other German heavy metal bands. Song after song like A Smile From Heaven's Eye to Silent War and all the way to the closing track A Crack In The Wall features interspersed keyboards, slow sections, heavy riffs and screams. There are far too few notable exceptions, The Prince Of Darkness being one, and they don’t last. The aforementioned with its horror movie (Poltergeist) sampled intro paves the way for a Dream Theater sounding song and all without escaping the clutches of the members’ pasts. Done too often and often not convincingly is the key phrase here. - Anna Tergel


Interviews







Ride The Sky