Circle II Circle - Live At Wacken - Official Bootleg

Published August 30 2014

*=Staff's pick	The Ocean/Welcome Turns To Me Morning Sun* Complaint In The System (Veronica Guerin) The Wake Of Magellan Anymore* The Hourglass Blackjack Guillotine

Genre	Heavy/Progressive Metal	Zak Stevens	Vocals
Tracks	8	Christian Wentz	Guitar
Running time	45 Min.	Marc Pattison	Guitar
Label	earMusic	Mitch Stewart	Bass
Release	20 August 2014	Adam Sagan	Drums
Country	USA	Henning Wanner	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	---

Zak Stevens and his Circle II Circle performed the lion's share of Savatage's classic album The Wake Of Magellan at Wacken Open Air in 2012 and this is obviously a live recording of that show, which I recall seeing parts of on site in the huge marquee outside the actual festival area. The above mentioned record was never one of my personal favorites, but I know for a fact that it's definitely seen as a masterpiece by a lot of the band's fans.

To listen to a live album is indeed a different experience for each individual. Personally I see live shows as ways for a band to create energy boosts and I really don't care if the actual musical performance isn't state of the art or if someone fucks up a little. Sonically this recording is a little thick and blurry and the instruments and Zak's beautiful voice are going up and down in the mix a little. As far as I'm concerned, it's pretty much what a live album should sound like, because it's definitely not too polished or recorded in the studio.

I'm truly no expert in Savatage's music and I really can't tell if it would have sounded much different with the original musicians behind the singer. It probably would have, but anyway I think that this is a fairly good document to check out, if someone who digs the original studio album wants to listen to these songs performed live.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	5	7	8	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe