Being a member of
Savatage for many years and then being out of the music scene for some time, Zak is back with a new band Circle II Circle. The
Savatage boys Jon Oliva and
Chris Caffery have helped with a lot of the song writing, and the result is a Heavy Metal record with a kind of relaxed and down-to-earth-tempo, with nice melodies and catchy choruses.
Sea Of White displays some great grooving bass combined with some heavy guitar riffing. Central is the really good atmospheric chorus that's powerful sung, also the change in the pace of the song works well. Nice powerful and detailed drumming contributes in making this a great song.
Into The Wind is my favourite track on this album and the only really genius one of them, melodic but still with a bite. The slow and moody beginning sounds fantastic and Zak sings in a beautiful way. The song suddenly explodes into a great melodic and catchy chorus, there is something completely drawing, powerful and very original about the composition of the chorus. The slow down tuned rhythm guitar that starts and ends the songs wraps things perfectly in.
In
Forgiven we find the albums slowest and in some way mysterious track. The dark atmospheric start, greatly created by the keyboard and Jon Oliva's gloomy background vocals, is broken by a more melodic vocal part by Zak. The song has some great melodic guitar lead parts, the chorus on the other hand appears a bit tame. In
Lies a harder rhythm sets in. It's an ok song, but the simple stretched-out chorus just doesn't work that well. Even though the song rocks pretty well I'm left with a feeling of something really exiting missing.
Walls clearly is one of the best songs on the record. A great piano/acoustic guitar rhythm lays the fundament. The ultra slow and positive-loaded chorus works perfectly with the calm mood, and the melodic guitar solo fits nicely in with the core of the song.
F.O.S. also has many good qualities. Especially the dark moody symphonic atmosphere, the great underlying pounding bass, and the multi voice outro.
The band sounds pretty tight and delivers some good musical performances. Zak's voice is as always brilliant. The rhythm guitar parts from Matt LaPorte are packed with a fitting amount of power and cool riffs, and the solos are also pretty well performed, nothing extraordinary though.
The bass has a cool sound on the record and its grooving parts fits the rhythm nicely, and the drums deliver the goods and some cool diverse passages are pursued from time to time.
Overall the musical performance can be described as very solid.
The production level is an overall very successful one, a clean and well-balanced result.
A characteristic of all songs is that a central chorus takes an important position. This is not something really problematic, but as mentioned in a couple of songs I feel the reliance on the main chorus a bit too strong.
A faster tempo is pursued in some tracks and that aspect works really well; I would have liked more of this harder and right in your face attitude aspect of the band, especially when almost all songs can be labelled mid-tempo. Not that all songs isn't their own, it's more the overall style of them that becomes a bit too well known after 10 songs, some more varied elements would only have helped making things even more interesting.
The lyrics are what I would call pretty good and at times interesting. Many songs have a personal retrospective sight, coming to terms with past mistakes and experiences and finding a right path for today. The meaning of the lyrics and the way Zak sings them melts together nicely; he has always mastered the art of expressing just the right feeling of the words.
Overall I find this a very good album, perfect suitable if you are in a mood for something melodic and with a relaxed atmosphere.
Written by
Tommy Tuesday, June 24, 2003
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