Customer Reviews

Trance State

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Red Circuit is an awesome super group consisting of some of the most talented musicians in the melodic and progressive metal genres. It is primarily the project of Markus Teske, one of the greatest producers to come out of Germany. He is best known for his work with bands that include Vanden Plas, Symphony X, Saga, Neal Morse, and Ian Parry's Consortium Project. If you've heard the new Vanden Plas album Christ 0 and are a fan of melodic prog metal you must have loved the production on it big time. Bringing in Vanden Plas vocalist Andy Kuntz to co-produce the album, Markus Teske handles the keyboard work and much of the songwriting.

One reason why Red Circuit's Trance State is such a success is vocalist Chity Somapala. The name may not ring a bell, but I'm sure you've heard at least one of his projects: Avalon, Firewind, Ivanhoe, Moonlight Agony and so on. Somapala is an incredible vocalist and terribly underrated. He's always reminded me of another Sri Lankan singer, Roy Khan. His smooth, expressive voice is both powerful and utterly emotive and it allows him to portray a huge spectrum of moods. This album could be his best performance in his career yet (along with Avalon's Eurasia) in that he delivers amazing vocal harmonies that exude melody and power dripping with emotion. For example, the opening track, whose Eternity X-like keyboard intro by Teske is masterful in itself, finds Somapala going for a Lande meets Khan style with added percussive work and great breaks inserted with sound effects and melodic solos. "Is It Gold?" is a groovy track, particularly for its explosive main riff, but it's swiftly carried into a different context due to heavy 70's-inspired keys and a fantastic lead solo by Adagio's Stephan Forte. To contrast Forte's intricate playing Somapala dives headlong into a multi-part vocal harmony that will make fans of Threshold go crazy. And as if that's not enough, there is the exotic-sounding "The Veil" that eerily evokes Turkey's Pentagram during their Anatolia period. Rich Middle Eastern instruments, huge bass, a terrific interplay between guitars and keyboards, and on top of all, another guest solo by Vanden Plas' shredder Stephan Lill, not unlike his awe-inspiring work on Christ O.

"Where You Are" calms things down a bit. It's mostly Teske's piano and a sad violin juxtaposed giving way to one of the most impressive vocal melodies I've heard all year (give a close listen between 1:32 and 1:59 especially). There are also great backing vocals in the second half of the piece, by female singer Christine Wolff. The middle part of the album boasts the more straightforward, groovy cuts such as "So Hard to Be Like God" where Teske marries symphonic elements with electronic soundscapes; "Search for Your Soul" guested by an insane solo guitar virtuoso Patrick Rondat; and "You Might Have Been Queen", which finds bassist Tommy Schmitt and drummer Frank Bodenheimer laying down some complex rhythms and unexpected fills. From here on, the band's influences, particularly in the vocal department, are again more noticeable. "The Screen" is like a song off of Conception's Flow masterpiece with delightful pianos while "Go Straight" feels like Vanden Plas' heaviest moment where the guitars and bass gush out the speakers still retaining a distinct melodic edge thanks to Markus Teske's keyboards. Speaking of the keyboards on Trance State, Teske proves here that he is foremost a musican and then a producer. He pulls out all kinds of sounds from a wide musical palette incorporating it into a very melodically structered yet also deeply heartfelt compositional frame. His work on the final track (again with some female vocals) is a testimony to his diversity.

This album is one of the best melodic prog releases of the year and is highly recommended to fans of Vanden Plas, Threshold (Mac era), Conception, and even Cloudscape whose second album is about to be released.

Red Circuit plays a terrific proggresive metal, with a traditional metal sound. Great quality solos makes this album unique in their category, so is the musicianship. They makes interesting tempo changes with a great melodies. If you like Evergrey first albums, this is for you.

While Evergrey is change his foccus from progressive metal to hard/heavy with just a little pieces of prog, maybe trying to get new fans, but even that, with a lot of qualitities Red Circuit is making all of the oldiest Evergrey fans wanted... a finnest progressive metal with a touch of traditional metal. Great vocal, heavy guitar bases and drums on point. Nice revelation from Limb Music. Check it out!

Limb Music Publishing tends to have a healthy (numbers wise) but middling (quality wise) roster that leaves the hard rock and metal fan a bit wary. That's a pity as in this case an album that is seemingly another in a line of studio project bands has it appears been lost in the shuffle undeservedly.

The long and the short of it? This is a solid hard rock come metal album crafted with some passion by a bunch of guys who have been to the puppet show and seen the strings. The cast here is well travelled; vocals by Chitty Sompala (Avalon, Firewind), keys by Markus Teske (producer for Symphony X amongst others), bass by Tommy Schmitt (Zeus) and drums by Frank Bodenheimer with Christine Wolff providing backing vocals. Guest dudes are guitar maestros Patrick Rondat, Stephan Forte and Stephen Lill who each play a solo in a song. Production was by Markus Teske.

The ten tracks here were supposedly inspired by the poetry of Klaus Kinski and the theme of dishonesty runs through the album. The music is generally Euro tinged metal but despite the heavy involvement of Teske in production and songwriting the tunes are generally driven by the axes. This isn't prissy stuff of the Stratovarius Elements albums and Chittys vox aren't all the way up into the stratosphere and his more natural tone is a plus. A good tune to sample would probably be Search For Your Soul or You Might Have Been Queen whereas the albums more melodic aspects can be heard in Trance State.

Barely even a footnote in the slew of albums seeing the light of day i n2006 this album will reward fans of releases that walk the line between hard rock and metal that keep things human but have an eye on aspiring thoughts.

I read some reviews about Red Circuit and while I agree they have quite a few progressive elements they are more traditionallly based than prog. The melodies don't jump around as much as progressive Metal does and the songs are heavier and more catchy. The singer is smooth and enjoyable. There are many power and classic Metal fans that don't enjoy prog metal all that much. This CD is very good and should not be overlooked as another band with too many keyboards and stop and go songs. Highly recommended to all Metal fans!!!