Journey are back. To be fair, they have released two post Steve Perry albums, the adult contemporary Arrival that had a fair share of AOR anthems, and the convoluted mess of Generations in 2001 and 2005 respectively. However, those albums are known by hardly anyone outside the die hard Journey circle. To many, without Steve Perry there is no Journey. It’s hard to replace any singer in a band as popular as this one, but to replace he of the golden voice and blessed tone is a daunting task. Steve Augeri did do an admirable job for his short run but the rigors of the back catalog ravaged his own great voice. A live appearance only stint with Malmsteen / Axel Rudi Pell singer Jeff Scott Soto was short lived and now we have a new “new” guy with Arnel Pineda. This guy is not Steve Perry. But he is a tremendous natural talent and he should have been huge with a voice like his. I guess now he will be after Neal Schon scooped him up.

So here we are in 2008 and armed with a brand new throat, Journey is going for it one last time. The most admirable thing about this mammoth three disc package is that Revelation’s strongest part is the brand new material. There is a second disc with re-recorded classics that is an enjoyable listen to hear Pineda’s take on the old songs but when I want to hear Wheel in the fuckin’ Sky I will play Infinity and not even think about this 08 version. Some people will take to these new versions and there is no harm that the band did this and included it as a bonus. It just didn’t work for me. For North American buyers (you’re going to have to hit up a Wal Mart for this one, it’s exclusive to that store chain only) there is a bonus DVD of a recent show with Arnel on the mic so we can see what this guy is like in front of a crowd. Again, he delivers the goods. He’s charismatic as all hell and seems really genuine. That great attitude and persona coupled with his soaring rendition of classics dotted with some newbies and I don’t see how someone can’t be won over. Journey has found the right man to continue at long last.

But what’s the point of still being a band if you’re playing the same old songs every night and never do anything new to test yourself? Revelation is actually an album where the legacy of the band hinders its quality. Unfortunately, I know that the casual fan doesn’t really care about new material but if this wasn’t under the name Journey, all the small webzines and melodic rock sites would be in aural ecstasy right about now. Unlike the ballad heavy Arrival, Revelations is mainly made up of up tempo rockers. Lead single Never Walk Away is a winner, as well as the rollicking Change For The Better. Wildest Dream is my personal favorite. This combines the Journey sound we all know and love with modern leanings. There’s a bit of distorted vocals, some Eastern sounding guitar stylings, and a humongous, pounding chorus that brings to mind the greatness of the Escape era. There’s one more surprise in store and that is a re-recording of Faith In The Heartland. This originally appeared on Generations and was exactly half of the only material on that cd that was worth a shit, the other being Never Too Late. It’s a fantastic, longing, melancholic, rock song. As strange as it seems, I prefer the Steve Augeri version. There is a slight delay during the bridge before the chorus and that throws me off every time. A great song nonetheless but yeah, the Augeri version is better. What would a Journey album be without panty dropping ballads? There’s four here and of those four only two really make the cut. After All These Years sounds like a better All The Way and What I Needed is above average.

Revelation is the right step for the band. I don’t see them doing too many more cds in the future and they can be proud that they were album to release something as relevant to their career as this album so late into it. Melodic Rock fans in general should eat this up, and depending on how much of a Steve Perry hard on the Journey fan is, I don’t see how fans of the band can't enjoy this.