CIRCLE II CIRCLE - CONSEQUENCE OF POWER

Circle II Circle

Consequence of Power

AFM Records - 2010

http://www.circle2circle.net

I'm a big fan of ex-Savatage vocalist Zachary Stevens. I've even met him and he seemed quite cool.

That being said, Circle II Circle is a completely perplexing band. I've been consistently disappointed in their material other than the first disc.

The track record of disappointment continues with Consequence of Power. Yada Yada Yada, it's a concept album. Musically the album is quite good. It is mostly an uptempo disc and quite electrifying.

And then sad to say, the lyrics kick in and the interest wanes and ultimately dies throughout the first half of the album. To borrow a curse word from the science fiction show Farscape, the lyrics for the first five songs are frelling boring. To make things worse, Stevens sounds almost bored or perhaps a near monotone vocal performance was the ultimate goal.

Things picked up a little in the second half. I liked the chorus for "Episodes of Mania" and both "Redemption" and "Take Back Yesterday" were good songs all the way around. The closing track "Blood of an Angel" was a power ballad type number that turned out remarkably well.

All things considered, the album is fair to middling and that leaves me more than a bit underwhelmed. I've been busy supporting all the various offshoot projects from Savatage members but setting aside the first CIIC album, it is much harder to do with this band than any of the others.

GRADE: C MINUS