Savage Circus - Dreamland Manor

*=Staff's pick	Evil Eyes* Between The Devil And The Seas* Waltz Of The Demon Tomorrowland It-The Gathering Beyond Reality When Hell Awakes* Ghost Story* Born Again By The Night*

Genre	Power Metal	Jens Carlsson	Vocals
Tracks	9	Emil Norberg	Guitar
Runningtime	55 Min.	Piet Sielck	Guitar
Label	Dockyard1	Piet Sielck	Bass
Release	29 August 2005	Thomen Stauch	Drums
Country	Germany/Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Blind Guardian, Persuader, Iron Savior

I guess that Blind Guardian ought to be a band familiar to all of the readers of Metal Covenant, and that their drummer left the band due to musical differences might also be known to most Blind Guardian fans. Thomen Stauch wanted to go back and create more fast hitting metal again and teamed up with Piet Sielck (Iron Savior and well known producer) which introduced him to Swedish band Persuader that many refer to as Blind Guardian clones even if they deserve a better description. So along with Jens Carlsson on vocals and Emil Norberg on guitar the line-up of Savage Circus was complete and can you take a guess on how it might sound?

It gets obvious pretty fast that Thomen strife to get back to the fast paced and aggressive power metal and that his about twenty years in Blind Guardian have made its mark on the songwriting. Savage Circus sound like the mid-era of Blind Guardian and the fast-paced songs that are found on albums like Somewhere Far Beyond (1991), Imaginations From The Other Side (1995) and Nightfall In Middle Earth (1998). The structure of the songs are recognized and arrangements with playful guitar leads, breaks, harmonies and backing vocals are all there and bare the same mark as with the predecessors.

The vocal similarities between Jens Carlsson and Hansi Kursch is strikingly, and even if Jens' voice is harsher you cannot overlook the resemblance. Piet Sielck has done the producing and done it well as he has made the album sound more full-toned than the productions on the albums from Persuader and Iron Savior for instance, which he also has produced. Savage Circus has managed to create head on thrashy power metal with catchy melodies and you can hear traces of Iron Savior as well as Gamma Ray in many guitar parts giving them somewhat of an own sound even if it is very close to you-know-what band.

The drumming is absolutely splendid as always from Thomen, you get some double-keg rhythms and furious beating that is too die for. And all of the guys in the band have really put an effort into this because it sounds great from every direction, there is a great amount of powerful energy and joy here that shines through. Savage Circus pull out the parts that I love the most from Blind Guardian and as a long time BG fan I have loved the progression they have made but I have also missed and found the faster and thrashier parts being to few, but with Savage Circus that urge gets satisfied. So how good is Savage Circus really? Better than Blind Guardian? In general no, better in some aspects but mostly they will have to live with trailing their origin. But compared with Persuader this new band takes one step further as this is as close to the original you can get and this is practically or even just as good as a new Blind Guardian album.