Mordred's Full Review: Watching in Silence by Circle II Circle
Zak Stevens may not have recorded any new material with Savatage since 1998's Wake of Magellan but you'd have a hard time telling that he's not in the band anymore after giving Watching In Silence a listen. Nothing has changed at all in his vocal delivery or his choice in material. In fact, looking at the liner notes, every single song has a writing credit from Zak and either Jon Oliva or Chris Caffery. The only discernable difference between the two bands is that Circle II Circle seems to be more song oriented as opposed to the concept album approach that Savatage has been mining successfully for the last few years.
Of course why mess with a successful formula, right? Stevens was well liked within the Savatage camp and he has a built in fan base that he doesn't want to alienate. Fortunately, the formula is still successful and fans of Savatage are going to enjoy this one as well.
Watching In Silence opens with "Out of Reach" which, like many of the songs on here, would be perfectly comfortable alongside any of the tracks from Wake of Magellan or Handful of Rain. The style is good, solid heavy metal with a distinctly Savatage flavor to the main theme and chorus. A pretty solid song that would make a great first single if it ever got played on the radio. The same goes for "Sea of White" which isn't as heavy but still has that same vibe.
From here on the album mellows a little and features keyboards/piano a lot more heavily on most of the other songs. This isn't a bad thing, although Stevens' voice isn't as well suited for AOR Hard Rock as it is for more progressive style, a problem that he's always had on more balladesque offerings.
The best song on the album is "Into the Wind" which features an absolutely stunning vocal line that reminds me a good deal of the breathtaking work Zak did on Wake of Magellan. The song is relatively laid back but features an explosive chorus that just grabs you and doesn't let go. Circle II Circle guitarist Matt LaPorte co-wrote the song (as well as the less impressive "Lies") and I don't know if it's his influence, but the song is on another level compared to the rest of the album.
There are a few songs that feel a little like filler ("Walls" and "Lies" come to mind), but the majority of the album is pretty high caliber. It is slower than the normal Savatage album with a few more piano intros than are needed, but I'm sure most listeners won't care. What's good is very good and what's bad isn't all that bad.
I get the impression that the supporting members of Circle II Circle are more of the hired gun variety (with the possible exception of LaPorte) and just assembled to create a band to record with. They're all competent musicians, but not particularly flashy and don't really seem to find their own respective voices. A great example of this is keyboardist John Zander. He sounds good, doesn't overplay and manages to sound exactly like Jon Oliva does on keyboards. It shouldn't be any surprise that most of the keyboard heavy songs contain a writing credit from Mr. Oliva.
Matt LaPorte does breakout of the mold a little bit and lend his own style to the proceedings, and thats a good thing as Circle II Circle doesn't employ two guitarists—their sound is already different from Savatage's. LaPorte seems more interested in hard rock than metal and so his playing isn't as technically flashy. It gives the affair an AOR-Rock feel, which is where the main difference between the two bands lies.
I'm not sure why Zak decided to leave Savatage and why he decided to return with a band so similar to his previous one, but it doesn't really matter. Fans now have two pretty similar bands to enjoy and twice the musical output is always a good thing, especially when the quality is so high. Those who enjoyed Zak's stint with Savatage owe it to themselves to pick up a copy of Watching in Silence.
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