To say that Michael Sadler's departure and Rob Moratti's arrival add up to a significant change for
Saga could be construed as simply stating the obvious.
But it's more than that.
More than any other member, the vocalist defines the band's sound. He makes it identifiable. His voice is the hook on which recognition of the band is hung.
Witness Journey's travails in finding the "right" vocalist. Hear just how similar in sound is Kelly Hansen to Lou (ex Foreigner) Gramm. Remember Judas Priest's much publicised search for Rob Halford's replacement. And so on.
Moratti's recent work with Mladen and their band, Final Frontier, was very much in the smooth, lightweight but heavily harmonised style of eighties' AOR.
Both here and in Japan, the band caused quite a few ripples without creating too many waves.
Accordingly, the Moratti fronted
Saga have chosen to open their latest studio album with the almost all instrumental title track. Vocally, only the processed hook line appears, and it appears only periodically through the track's near 7 minute duration.
Otherwise, the track is given over to Ian Crichton's ultra progressive, pentatonic fretwork, guiding Gilmour's keys and brother Ian's bass through choppy, hard-to-navigate progrock waters.
This track is clearly meant to be a strong opening statement. Affirmation that the motivation and the inspiration are both still there in abundance. But equally, relegating Moratti to a minor role could be seen as a lack of confidence that the marriage has worked.
The truth falls somewhere in between.
On
'Step Inside' a heavy riff and dramatic keyboards herald a sublime mix of contemporary, industrial strength progrock and melodic rock.
On
'The Hands Of Time', the tempo slows, the screen widens, and a colourful, softly undulating soundscape is revealed. Gradually, the lyrics begin to divulge the concept behind the album, picking up on the premise that underpins the title track.
But from here, it's downhill.
We plateau momentarily on the AOR-ish '
Avalon', a track that vividly brings Moratti's work with Mladen to mind, but we slip further down the precipice with '
A Number With A Name'. You get the clear feeling that the band is coasting now, recycling old ideas, using reconstituted riffs and tired themes. To the extent that once you reach Track 7,
'Let It Go', you're past caring about the underlying concept. You just want to hear some vintage
Saga.
Bookended between those two tracks is
'Now Is Now' - arguably the best song here, though tellingly, it's more Moratti than
Saga.
I'll say this though: the production and engineering are outstanding. The album's crystalline sound has depth, width and colour.
If only the material had been stronger.
On this evidence, Sadler brought more to the band than we knew.
Written by
Brian Monday, May 11, 2009
Show all reviews by BrianRatingsBrian: 4/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
This article has been shown 2713 times. Go to the
complete list.
