It’s always good to get home after you been away, isn’t it?  Well that is exactly what Circle II Circle vocalist Zak Stevens did when he reunited with his former band mates from Wickedwitch.  Wickedwitch is the band that Zak fronted before joining the mighty Savatage in 1992.  Wickedwitch had a solid repertoire of tunes and was on the verge of breaking out in the early 90’s, when Stevens and drummer Jeff Plate left the band to join The Tage.  Fast forward 17 years and the band has reformed with all of the original members with the exception of the original bassist, under the name Machines of Grace.  The band dusted off the classics and gave them a face lift; hence their debut CD, almost 20 years in the making.

Machines of Grace is a little bit of a departure from what Stevens has been doing over the last few years, with MOG leaning more towards the hard rock genre.  The CD is chocked full of great hard rocking tunes. The songs were written almost 20 years ago, but do not sound dated at all.  MOG is full of great tracks, like the opener Just a Game, which has a cool kind of Dokken feel to it.  It is a midtempo rocker with a good chunky riff that drives the tune and with Stevens vocals thrown in, youve just hit pay dirt, with K-Dirt.  Guitarist Matt Leff has a killer tone which is  somewhat reminiscent of early Lynch, just a little nastier, especially in the tune Psychotic.  All in all a solid CD from start to finish.  The songs are well written and will stay with you.

Bottom Line: Great melodic hard rock with a metallic edge, that gets better with each spin.

Standout tracks: Just a Game, Psychotic, The Moment and Soul to Fire.

Ragman needs sleep.

If a band that has been around for over 20 years, and is still touring under it surname, but only one original member still exist, is it really fair to keep the name alive?  That is a debate that many of us go through, especially as we get older, and the bands of our hey day change members like we change our underpants.  I have to admit, sometimes it bothers me and sometimes it doesn’t; it really just depends on the band.  Don’t ask me why, because I couldn’t tell you, which leads me to my review of White Lion’s latest concert release of their performance at the Bang Your Head Festival back in 05.

I have to say it is weird seeing the band sans everyone else but Mike Tramp, but it kind of works.  Mike has assembled a group of relatively unknown musicians to help him keep the White Lion name alive, and to actively tour and record.  The Bang Your Head DVD, is much like many of the live DVD’s that are released from these great metal festivals from Europe, because the camera work and the sound mix are done very well.

White Lion are somewhat of a well oiled machine, but they lack something.  The performance lacks the fire that the original band had back in the day.  Being that this was one of the earlier performances, from this incarnation of the band, maybe they were just getting familiar with one another.  Who knows?  I’m not sure, but it didn’t seem like the guys were too loose and the performance comes off a little stiff.  The sound like I said earlier is good, but when it came to the solo sections of each song, I just kept wishing that Vito Bratta would come out and show new guitarist Jamie Law how the big boys do it.  Law does an apt job, but he ain’t no Vito.  All in all not a bad DVD, I just wish the performance would have been a bit more exciting.  By the way there is some killer interview footage with Mike Tramp which made the view a bit more interesting.

Bottom Line: Not a bad DVD, but not a great one either.  I think Mike Tramp is on to something with this new cast of characters, but it is going to take sometime, before he gets the die-hard’s to forget about the past and look into the future.

Ragman is living on the edge.

It has been 2 years since Primal Fear released their somewhat controversial and disappointing CD New Religion.  Actually it has been about 7 years since the band has released a solid effort.  Don’t get me wrong, there have been some killer songs released within that 7 year period, but they haven’t been put out a solid CD from start to finish since Black Sun.  New Religion had the band dabbling with orchestrations and blending female vocals into the mix, and it didn’t really work out.  The band will have a lot to prove for the next release.

2009 brings the band’s 8th release 16.6 and it has been billed by bassist/co founder Matt Sinner as a return to form, with a few twists thrown in for good measure.  This should be an interesting release not only for the twists, but also for the enlistment of guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Last Tribe, Allen/Lande).  Karlsson will be replacing long time guitarist Stefan Leibing, who left the band last year to spend more time with his family.

16.6 starts with a mood setting intro called the Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. The intro is a a choral chant that gives you the feeling that you are walking through purgatory, preparing for judgment day, when all of the sudden the metal begins and the first real track Riding the Eagle kicks things into gear.  It is an up tempo rocker/thrasher full of catchy riffs and great chorus.  It is pure Primal Fear at their fiercest.  This one is sure to get the fist pumping and the head banging.  The next track to catch my ear was the middle eastern flavored track Black Rain.  The track begins with a cool middle eastern sitar like intro, before kicking in to the tune.  It is a mid tempo rocker full of killer hooks and sing along chorus.

16.6 sees the band getting back on track, providing a 15 track platter full of molten metal, but unfortunately not all of the tracks make the mark.   As with the last few PF releases, there are some standout tracks, but there are also a handful of tunes that just leave the listener somewhat bored.  At 15 tracks, it is easy for an artist to get a little repetitive, and that is what has happened here.  The songs that stand out on this release, are the ones the band took chances on, like Black Rain and the power ballad Hands of Time.  Unlike their previous effort, when the band pushed the envelope on 16.6, they succeeded.

Bottom Line: Solid metal from one of the front runners in the genre.  A pretty solid CD full of good songs that sometimes gets a little repetitive.

Standout Tracks: Black Rain, Hands of Time, Riding the Eagle and Under the Radar.

Ragman is looking for his bible.

Delain was founded by ex-Within Temptation keyboardist Martijn Westerholt back in 2002 and April Rain marks the band’s second release.  The bands first release Lucidity featured a who’s who of artists from the gothic metal scene.  April Rain, for me, is Delain’s first real band effort, since their were not a lot of guests brought in to participate.  Delain’s music, as you would imagine, is not to far off from the likes of Within Temptation or Lacuna Coil; The music is heavy and very melodic, with clean female vocals.

With the success of bands like Evanescence and Lacuna Coil, this style of music continues to grow, and more new bands seem to be going this direction.  Let’s see if Delain, is good enough to hang with the others.  The CD starts with the uptempo title track and first single April Rain, which is a great opener because of the great hook and very catchy chorus.   It starts with a cool piano intro and then gets into a cool, catchy, heavy melody that propels the track into a finely wrapped piece of ear candy.  Vocalist Charlotte Wessels has a really good voice in the vain of Christina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil) or even Amy Lee (Evanenscence).  She actually sings with a little more fury than the two previously mentioned, which makes this track essential for metal fans.

The CD has a mix of solo vocals by Wessels mixed with male vocals ala Lacuna Coil.  It is interesting because the male vocals, vary per song, in styles ranging from clean lower range, to high range and even death.  Not all in the same song, they vary per track, in which they are featured.  The songs are catchy, heavy and melodic and make this one an interesting find.

Bottom Line: Heavy, melodic gothic metal.  A CD that will grow on you with each listen.

Standout Tracks: April Rain, Stay Forever, Invidia and  Nothing Left

Ragman is dressed in black.

It has been 4 years since the release of the last Stratovarius CD.  It has been a rocky road, but the band persevered and has just recently released their 12th studio album Polaris.   The band, it seems, has been in a constant state of turmoil since about 2003, breaking up and getting back together on a fairly routine basis.  Stratovarius has been involved in more drama than and episode of Days of Our Lives.  It wasn’t until Timo Tolki’s last meltdown in 2008, resulting in him quitting the band for good, that the band got on track.  Polaris marks the first release from the band sans Tolki, since it inception in 1989.  Tolki was the primary songwriter for the band since it’s inception, so Polaris will be a true test for the lads, to see how strong their writing chops are and to see if they can keep the trademark sound.  Let’s see if they pulled it off.

Polaris starts off with the first single from the disk Deep Unknown.   The track starts off in true Stratovarius fashion with a cool synth intro blasting into a killer upbeat power metal tune.  The song is somewhat catchy but a little stale, and a questionable first single.  The best part of the song is the solo by new guitarist Matias Kupiainen as well as the interaction between he and keyboardist Jens Johansson. There is a cool solo dual between the two, as well as harmonized DT-ish type melody they do before resuming into the meat of the song.  Cool stuff - too bad the rest of the song isn’t stronger.  The first track to really catch my ear is Falling Star.   It is vintage Stratovarius and could possibly being a classic for the band.  The song is a midtempo rocker with a catchy riff and a cool melodic chorus.  My only complaint is there is no guitar solo. The CD has a major keyboard presence on it, and on several occasions opts to have synth solos in lieu of guitar solos.

Polaris is pretty much what you have been getting from the band since the Elements era - mediocre.  The CD is about half good.  The songs are structured well, but they lack the fire, that the band had back in the day and come off somewhat stale.  There are no new ideas going on here.  Another critique is that the production is a little flat and not as heavy as on some of their earlier releases.  Don’t get me wrong there are some solid tracks on the CD, but they do not outweigh the mediocre ones.   I have to admit I miss Tolki’s playing, but Matias is a apt replacement.  The styles are different, but they do have one thing in common they can both wail.  All in all not a bad CD, and a step in the right direction since their last outing.

Bottom Line: Statovarius bounce back after years of turmoil and release a fairly solid CD.  Pretty much what you have come to expect from the band, solid power metal with few surprises.

Standout Tracks: Falling Star, Winter Skies, Higher We Go and Emancipation.

Ragman has spilled his guts, and it kind of hurts.