Ron Coolen – 'Rise' 

When you think of rock and metal music, it’s highly unlikely that the first country you’ll think of is the Netherlands. But when you take off your US/UK tinted spectacles and put your mind to work, you’ll find that the Dutch have produced a multitude of great rock talent over the years. Golden Earring and Shocking Blue were successful worldwide in the 60’s and 70’s, Vandenberg were so good in the mid-late 80s that their main man was poached by the then world conquering Whitesnake and Within Temptation continue to sell out arenas to this day with their brand of symphonic metal. That’s before we take cognisance of the fact that Focus even managed to make yodelling in a rock song a cool thing to do with 1971’s Hocus Pocus! So there’s a fairly rich heritage in rock music to be found in the north European country more commonly known as Holland.

Ron Coolen hopes to become part of this Dutch musical heritage with his debut album ‘Rise’, released a few months ago. The multi-instrumentalist is already fairly well known in local music circles in Holland for playing in metal band Razor in the early 80s and performing with cover bands before stepping back to take a more supporting role with festival/gig organising and presenting his own radio show. But Coolen’s main occupation in the corporate business world pretty much curtailed his musical ambitions… until now!

Writing the music and playing guitars, bass, drums and keyboards himself, Coolen used some of his connections in the music industry to persuade some fairly illustrious names to be involved in the album, mainly to provide vocals and guitar solos. Most prominently featured is vocalist Keith St John (Burning Rain, Montrose) who appears on the first 6 tracks with further guest appearances by the likes of George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), Goran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen), Thorsten Koehne (Eden’s Curse), Steve Lamb (Tygers of Pan Tang) and more! Securing such big names for a debut album is quite a coup and most certainly piques interest… but does ‘Rise’ live up to expectations?

The album kicks off with first single Big Devil Data, featuring Keith St John on vocals and a guest guitar solo by German whizz Thorsten Koehne. The opening riff is actually the first piece of music recorded by Coolen on GarageBand when preparing the album, so it’s an apt track to start with. It’s a driving hard rock song with some chunky riffs throughout and is very much suited to Keith St John’s unmistakeable vocals. The drums and bass help to keep the track moving along without being too flashy whilst the chorus is catchy enough to have you singing along after a few listens. Koehne’s guest guitar solo is fast and melodic and fits well with the feel of the track.

Next track White Summer has a Led Zeppelin Kashmir-like feeling to it. The chord structure used and the heavily distorted vocals during the intro allows for a very mystic, eastern feeling to the music. It’s an incredibly atmospheric track with St John channeling his inner Robert Plant as breathy, sultry vocals turn to soaring heights with ease. French guitarist Stephan Forte provides some classy guitar work in the middle of song and in the closing section whilst Coolen’s proficiency as a drummer is quite apparent throughout. This track is definitely a highlight for me and Keith St John is on top form… but it’s one that was initially written for another vocalist. If Keith St John hadn’t been on it, this would’ve been a very different sounding track!

Third track Too Late to Surrender is about the 2017 Las Vegas massacre when a gunman shot and killed 58 people attending a music festival from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. The track starts with chilling sound-clips from Las Vegas Police Department officers attending the scene before a sample of President Donald Trump’s speech in which he describes it as “an act of pure evil”. Lyrically, this is quite a brutal song with phrases such as “red rain” and “bodies hit the ground” evoking images of the bloodshed. With vivid lyrics describing such a horrific event, the

music had to be similarly dark with a moody, driving rhythm guitar and bass and menacing sounding vocals. Perhaps you have to hear the track to understand what I mean when I say that even the structure and style of the guitar solo helps to create a feeling of confusion and panic in the music, similar to what must’ve been felt by the poor souls targeted on that fateful day. If this was a deliberate musical ploy by Coolen, it worked wonderfully well!

Recently released as the second single, next track Sin City starts with a bluesy little guitar riff by Coolen before Keith St John continues his vocal journey on the first half of the album. The staccato rhythm guitar sound gives this track a real fun feel to it but it really comes alive when hard rock guitar legend George Lynch lets rip with his guest guitar solo. It’s classic Lynch, initially playing around with the solo before bursting into some melodic shredding up and down the fretboard. During a recent interview with Ron Coolen, he explained to me that Lynch recorded a longer solo than he was asked to do, allowing more soloing to be added to the end of the track. After all, nobody is going to cut or scrap a solo by George Lynch!!

Gotta Shoot Your Devils Down is the oldest track on the album as the core of the song was conceived in the early 80s when Coolen played in the band Razor. New elements were added and the song restructured for a fresher more modern sound but the heart of the track still very much lies in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. There a much harder drum sound to this song with what sounds like a double bass kick being employed throughout. Keith St John’s vocals are a lot tougher sounding than on previous tracks in order to suit the 80s NWOBHM vibe but he still manages to sing effortlessly, never missing a note. With NWOBHM being the order of the day, it’s fitting that ex-Tygers of Pan Tang guitarist Steve Lamb agreed to provide the guitar solo. Not surprisingly, the solo sticks to the theme with Lamb shredding like he did in his heyday. It’s a track that will trigger nostalgia for those of a certain vintage and might force them to raid wardrobes to find their trusty old sleeveless denim jacket resplendent with band patches!

Track 6, Ashes to Ashes, is a short instrumental of spooky, horror movie sounding keyboards and organs accompanied by sound clips of news reports telling the story of the Californian town of Paradise which was ravaged by the bushfires of late 2018. President Trump makes another cameo, expressing the nation’s horror before drum rolls, keyboard chords and guitars introduce the track Paradise, the final one on the album to feature Keith St John. Obviously, it’s a track about the damage and death caused by the fires as explained by the lyrics in the chorus; “nothing left in Paradise. Ashes to ashes. Nothing left in Paradise. Dust to dust”. Musically, it’s fairly dark and moody sounding but with the lyrical content, could it have sounded any other way? It’s a good track without being outstanding and if I had to find any criticism, I’d say that at 6 and a half minutes (8 minutes if you include the Ashes to Ashes intro), it was a bit too long to keep interest. Perhaps Coolen wanted this to be the epic track at the centre of the album and to an extent, he succeeded in doing so… but for me there just wasn’t enough oomph to stop me losing track of what was going on.

If the first half of the album featuring Keith St John was the hard rock side, the remaining tracks on ‘Rise’ explore Coolen’s metal sensibilities. Kill Kill Kill sounds exactly as the title suggests; fast and thrashy! This is reminiscent of the early thrash metal work of the big four of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. Vocalist Sam Walters goes from low grunts to high pitched screams with ease and when he shouts “Kill Kill Kill” with such terrifying intensity, you’ll find yourself looking around to make sure nobody is behind you! Playing drums, guitar and bass at such speed really highlights the amazing musical ability of Ron Coolen who is on blistering form here. Sometimes, such fast metal songs are made at the expense of musicality but Coolen ensures that the integrity of the music is kept intact and a melodic core remains throughout the track. Former Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott performs a guitar solo that your ears will struggle to keep up with due to the

pretty amazing speed and tempo of his playing! The difference in sound between this track and the 7 that have gone before is quite astounding. It’s literally like listening to a different album!

Track 9, the album’s title track, is a very short instrumental lasting less than a minute in which Coolen gets to show off his impressive keyboard skills. With a classic rock organ sound prominent in 60s and 70s rock music, Coolen uses arpeggios to great effect, evoking memories of the late, great Jon Lord’s playing on Deep Purple’s Burn album. There’s possibly even a hint of Dutch prog legends Focus on this track but when I put this to Coolen during a recent interview, he denied any influence by either Jon Lord or Focus. In fact, he knew very little about Jon Lord’s music as he has never been a Deep Purple fan, nor is he a devotee of his fellow countrymen Focus. Notwithstanding this, the musical ability on display here is impressive. All those piano and organ lessons he took as a child have certainly paid off!

This leads into the track Stories which continues with the harder sound of the second half of the album. Again, a double bass drum kick seems apparent here, helping to drive the track along. This track is most certainly slower and more melodic than Kill Kill Kill and straddles the line between hard rock and metal until the guitar solos and grunting vocals appear, which are definitively heavy metal! The drum work is outstanding towards the end of the track and I can see why Coolen has previously stated that this is one of the tracks he is most proud of. Penultimate track From Your Mouth starts with a piercing scream and some sterling vocals by Chris Clancy, who was discovered by Coolen on YouTube! Clancy is able to switch from low grunts to screams without having a detrimental effect on the vocal clarity. That can be a difficult thing to do in metal music! Steve Lamb once again steps up with a great guitar solo to accompany the rhythm guitar and keyboard stabs prominent on the track. Coolen’s love of metal bands such as Arch Enemy and Lamb of God is apparent!

This album is very much divided in two. The first half is hard rock with the second half more focused on metal. So, it’s fitting that closing track Selfishness merges both genres in many ways! During our recent interview, Coolen admitted that he didn’t know where to place this song on the album and it only ended up being the last track as it didn’t fit elsewhere! It has been more accident than design but in my mind, it’s the perfect closer. Former Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Goran Edman was recruited to sing on this and at times, his vocals remind me of former Queensryche main man Geoff Tate, particularly in the higher octaves… and that’s no bad thing! The chorus and verses are fairly straightforward hard rock with an eastern feel but the guitar solos by young guitar prodigy and one time Arch Enemy touring member Joey Concepcion are decidedly metal! Sometimes, hard rock meeting metal on the same track can be a bit of a hit or miss but it definitely works well here and brings the ‘Rise’ listening experience to a suitable end.

Writing and recording ‘Rise’ is a dream come true for Ron Coolen. All of his life experiences, from his early days in a metal band to presenting a radio show and playing in cover bands, have culminated in the making of this album. It’s a travesty that the album’s release coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic taking hold in Europe, restricting opportunities for proper radio promotion etc. But Ron Coolen is an intelligent and resourceful man who has worked in the corporate world for a long time before investing his time, money, heart and soul into making this album. He knows how business works and no world pandemic will stop him from getting his music to the masses! Coolen told me that the album cover art signified him rising from the corporate world into the realms of music. Now in his mid-50s, it’s been a long time coming but as the saying goes… better late than never! He’s now on the rock journey he always dreamed of and he isn’t stopping for anyone with some music already written for a follow up album. Ron Coolen’s music deserves your attention and support. This is an outstanding debut album of the highest quality with every tiny detail overseen by one man. Get onto his website, listen to the tracks and buy the music. Ron is indeed rising and there’s a lot more to come. On the strength of this album, he deserves to continue his ‘Rise’