Risen Son
New Beginning
Independent
Grade – C+

Risen Son is Colin Hayes (Vocals, Bass) and Jay Imus (Guitar) and they hail from Seattle, WA area. They came together a few years ago and began writing original music together. Previously they both spent time playing in their respective church praise bands.

Their sound is described as “old school” rock. I would tend to agree with that statement as I thought the soundtrack was extremely retro. In fact, my chief criticism of the album was that the sound was not contemporary enough – too retro.

I think that New Beginning has its place in worship and it probably works great for conferences and special gatherings. That to me would be its strength. The CD’s weakness would be that it’s too far retro to make it commercially. Not that the bands intent is to be successful commercially, but it helps to fund and sell future projects.

My personal favorites are the title track with its breezy melodies, cool guitar licks and catchy lyrics. It’s also the most contemporary sounding track. I also like “Prayer” especially how they dropped in the kids voices in the beginning.

The band Risen Son can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/risensonband.

- Ken W.