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Ну, все основное уже расписали. Добавлю свои сугубо личные впечатления.
Нехорошие предчувствия по поводу сольной деятельности бывшего вокалиста Savatage Зака Стивенса у меня появились сразу после выхода его дебютного альбома. Как выяснилось, не зря. Ну и что здесь делали Джон Олива и Крис Кэффери? Смотрим буклет. Вроде музыку писали. Да ну? Похоже, они отдали Стивенсу все то, что постеснялись включить в свои сольные альбомы. То, что было бы проходной вещью на пластинке Оливы или Кэффери здесь чуть ли не хит. Ну, с этих друзей-алкоголиков не убудет, а когда же мы, наконец, услышим композиторские дарования самого Зака (хотя бы ради спортивного интереса)? Что группа Circle II Circle, собственно, хотела сказать этим альбомом? Нет, музыканты не поднимают актуальные проблемы, не решают жизненно важные вопросы и даже не дают шанса своим русским поклонникам выучить хоть пару новых английских слов. Клише на клише сидит и клише погоняет. Альбом звучит очень вымучено, вяло и мрачно. Извините, ребята, но это не уровень музыкантов Savatage. Бывших или нынешних – не важно…
P.S. За что же такая высокая оценка спрашивается? Ответ: я очень люблю голос Стивенса и ничего не могу с собой поделать… |
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Второй альбом бывший вокалист легендарной прогрессив хэви металической группы Savatage Зак Стивенс записывал вновь в культовой студии Morrissound Studios с Джимом Моррисом. Весьма ощутимо перетряхнув состав банды, Зак наконец-то таки записал своё второё творение. Предыдущий дебютный альбом «Watching In Silence» был отлично принят как критиками, так и самими поклонниками, да и я сам оценил его очень высоко. Такого же результата хотелось ожидать и от нового творения вокального мастера. Прежде всего, обращаешь внимание на обложку, на которой красуется знакомая с предыдущего диска пентаграмма, только теперь всё выполнено в зелёном цвете. Должен сказать, что по качеству звучания и техничности музыкального материала «The Middle Of Nowhere» продолжает стартовую работу, с тем отличием, что гитарные риффы стали ещё более жёстче и драйвовее, а партии ударных несколько ускорили свой темп. Вокал Зака не перетерпел никаких изменений, и как прежде радует мощностью и красотой своего голоса. По части мелодики, «The Middle Of Nowhere» представляет собой типичный, в хорошем смысле этого слова, не быстрый прогрессив хэви метал, с ссылками на творчество Savatage, Jon Oliva's Pain и, соответственно, Circle II Cicle образца 2003 года. Признаюсь я очень сильно ждал этого опуса, поскольку предыдущий уже был заслушан до дыр, но до сих пор иногда допускался в плеер, и должен сказать, что от первого прослушивания «The Middle Of Nowhere» остались весьма противоречивые эмоции. Новый материал показался мне очень мрачным и злобным, в некоторой степени прогрессивно сложным, чего нельзя было сказать о «Watching In Silence», который с первого прослушивания уже рулил на полной силе! Однако после нескольких внимательных прослушиваний ситуация стала более ясной – диск показался мне в целом приятным, а несколько песен и вовсе подобрались на уровень цепляемости, заданный предыдущим сильнейшим альбомом. И из этих композиций я бы обязательно выделил замечательный мощный боевик «All That Remains», жёсткий и напористый номер «Open Season», качевой трек «Cynical Ride» с отличным припевом, полу балладную композицию «Faces In The Dark», в таком же ритме и в таком же высоком качестве выдержана и заглавная песня «The Middle Of Nowhere». Закрывает альбом великолепная акустическая баллада «Lost». Подводя итоги, можно с уверенностью заявить что с выходом этого альбома все поклонники старого прогрессивного хэви метала и, конечно же, Savatage и Circle II Circle, будут спать спокойно… |
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Выходу "The Middle Of Nowhere", второго студийника группы экс вокалиста Savatage Зака Стивенса, предшествовало довольно неприятное событие. После гастролей в поддержку дебютного альбома Circle II Circle "Watching In Silence", вся группа в полном составе отбыла в расположение Jon Oliva's Pain, нового проекта мастермайнда Savatage. Но Зак даже и не думал отчаиваться! Набрав в коллектив молодых и малоизвестных музыкантов в лице гитаристов Энди Ли и Эвана Кристофера, басиста Пола Стюарта и барабанщика Тома Дреннана, маэстро Стивенс принялся активно работать над новым материалом. Который, хотя и вновь был практически полностью написан совместно с Джоном Оливой и Крисом Кэффери, получился реально не похожим на "Watching In Silence". Видимо здесь сыграло большую роль желание Зака избавиться от клейма эксплуататора старых идей. Как говорится - хотите новых? Да сколько угодно! Пианино и клавишные? Это все пережитки прошлого, этих инструментов на "The Middle Of Nowhere" практически нет вообще, их место заняли жесткие и драйвовые гитарные риффы. Многоголосие и хоры? А зачем они нужны при таком материале? Атмосфера старого доброго Savatage, весьма хорошо воскрешенная на дебютнике? И она пропала, теперь саунд Circle II Circle растерял почти всю индивидуальность, и больше похож на абсолютно стандартный во всех отношениях прогрессив хэви. Хиты? Даже и тут проблемы, по-настоящему запоминающихся песен всего две - это уже активно раскручиваемый сингловый боевик "All That Remains" и потрясающая стилизация под звук (только не падайте со стула!) Van Halen, в кичевом и почти глэмовом номере "Hollow". Также относительно интересны грустный открывающий эпик "In This Life", драйвовый и скоростной трек "Psycho Motor", и нечто сильно смахивающие на попытки удовлетворить и старых фэнов тоже, запихнув в концовку диска парочку откровенно Savatage'вских песен - помпезную заглавную композицию и мрачную сюиту "Faces In The Dark". Но все равно - на мой взгляд, в своей новоприобретенной самостоятельности Зак забрел не в те дебри. Вечно воссоздавать былую "классическую" атмосферу, конечно, не хорошо, но уж явно будет поинтересней скучноватого и простенького материала, который можно слышать на "The Middle Of Nowhere". (Диск предоставлен компанией CD Maximum) |
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Now that it's gone and there's no trace
Could have been the one to guide you
Through your darkest days
Ain't gonna run this time
It's all played out
I'll stand right here
Face the wrath you give
I've dealt with the crime
I'm over doing time
Got to clear it out
It's my time to live
Stay awake 'til light
There's no end in sight
Ain't gonna lose this fight
It's my chance for flight
I've held on too long
To things that went wrong
It was far overdue
I'd erase it all for you
I'd erase it all for you
I could never change the world in this life
Everything is hanging on a thin line
I could never change the world
I could never change the world
Are we're losing all we've come to know?
I could never change the world
Are we justified in letting go?
I could never change the world
I could never change the world in this life
Everything is hanging on a thin line
2. All That Remains
Now I can see I need more than time
Time to understand this life
All that remains are the things that never changed
You need more than I could provide
More than what you feel inside
You know the pain so familiar
Who's to gain?
It's a one-way situation
Running through my mind
In a world of desolation
The souls we left behind
In this mass confusion
Ringing in my head
Through all the past illusions
I see you there a silent stare
Why, why should truth have its cost?
This reality is my loss to find my peace
Is the hardest thing to reach
So we ride dividing lines
And we keep on buying time
We play this game
And there's no good time to change
It's a one-way situation...
Memories locked in safe places
Been through shock and seen the faces
Can someone hear me now?
Can someone show me?
All that seemed just the right way
Was a lie sent to betray
Time's torment never complete
Lives for rent
So easy to deceive
So easy to believe
Now, can I see I need more than time...
It's a one-way situation...
Where will the souls remain?
Drowning in pools of shame. All that remains!
3. Open Season
I know you're looking for something
Trying to find a way
To bring me down
Surrounded by these thoughts
I'm closing in on a victim
Who'll never be found
Looking to justify the reasons
For the torture
You're spreading around
So disconnected from the real world
Your salvation
Coming from the underground
You found, the blood is spilling
Now it's open season
No one's found a reason
Why you had to
Hide your true intent
Beneath your cries
You offered no redemption
Only misconceptions
Along the way
You wore your cruel disguise
No reason here inside
Souls turn empty
Nothing's left
Got to remind me
Of every last regret
For once you've got to
Stay away
I can't stand you
Coursing through my veins
In chains, the blood is spilling
Now it's open season...
I sense the end
I begin to sweat
The aggravation is
So near death
You know we ain't
Seen nothing yet
Contemplate your final regrets
Don't forget the blood you're spilling
Now it's open season...
4. Holding On
Look in the past in times you'll see
(The broken pieces of your life)
Everything that was in focus
(Broke apart before your eyes)
Nights you shook with cold despair
(That you really couldn't bear)
Then you scream to find there's no one there
Look into the face of a crying disgrace
Lies defeat you time's deceived you
You can't take it anymore
You know it ain't so hard to break you
Did you know how far they'd take you?
Can you see the scars upon you?
Still you face the nights alone
Everything is falling by the wayside
And it's calling you to find the reasons why
You're just holding on
Can't you see what's wrong?
Look at what you've got
Find out if it's worth
Holding on - Holding on
Your thoughts come through in only shades
(Things seem deep within your gray)
In this out of mind experience
(Only darkness will exist)
Remember days we used to show
(These deep divisions that we know)
Apparitions seen so long ago
Look into the face of a crying disgrace
The situation got you breaking
You can't take it anymore
You know it ain't so hard to break you...
Look into the face of a crying disgrace
Lies defeat you time's deceived you
You can't take it anymore
You know it ain't so hard to break you...
5. Cynical Ride
Sometimes when you think
There's a way out of this situation
Somehow the unforeseen comes
Leading you back to the aggravation
Can't you feel the hours
Wasting away?
You're waiting to fall apart
Don't you fear all the demons inside?
It's not the image
Of an innocent child
In the midst of your cynical ride
Taking its toll - Taking its toll
As it tears you deep inside
Feel it staring you down?
As it takes you against the tide
Feel the weight coming down
Controversy sells like your soul
As you melt in your hole
While the treachery reappears
Resurrecting your fears
Can't you feel the hourglass
Counting your days?
In this impossible race
Don't you fear all the demons inside?
It's not the image
Of an innocent child
In the midst of your cynical ride
Taking its toll - Taking its toll
As it tears you deep inside
Feel it staring you down?
As it takes you against the tide
Feel the weight coming down
Mayhem feeds the chaos
Feeding the frenzy of all things lost
Feeling normal these days?
You don't have to search hard to find your grave
Can't you feel the hourglass
Counting your days?
While you're fading away
Don't you fear all the demons inside?...
6. Hollow
See the raging hearts
Waiting to explode
Tripping in the dark
They shift to overload
All they ask is to return
It surrounds you
Releasing all the pain
All the troubled times
Carrying that dead weight
I'm crushing the barriers of time
Keeping the hollow down inside
Away from the troubles that I've known
Waiting for the truth to finally show
Run alone again
On dark and winding roads
I reflect upon
This twisted web I've seen
It's so hard to return
Have they found me?
The light begins to fade
And I know it's time
Wash the sins away!
Approaching the barriers of time
Keeping the hollow down inside
Away from the troubles that I've known
Waiting for the truth to finally show
See the desperate hearts taking every turn
All that's come and gone
They borrowed and they burned
It's so hard to return
It surrounds you
Releasing the pain
All the troubled times
Carrying that dead weight
I'm crushing the barriers of time
Keeping the hollow down inside
Away from the troubles that I've known
Waiting for the truth to finally show
Approaching the barriers of time
Keeping the hollow down inside
Away from the troubles that I've known
Waiting for the truth to finally show
7. Psycho Motor
I want to know why you make the silence
Create the violence reflecting in my head
I'm on the run just a soul deceiver
A true believer lifted from the dead
This time I want to roll the tide
I'm gonna touch the sky
Don't believe a word they said
Then I'll wait for the perfect hour
To feed the psycho motor in my head
I finally see what the end will bring
There's a truth in the words and the things never heard
When they try as they must to save the nation
Contemplate your own salvation
I'm burning, still running, I'm gone to stay
You want - Times caught - Why run? - Times done
I want to fly like there's no tomorrow
No broken sorrows, no cry for quick solutions
Must be nice sitting way up there
In your private lair blending into this confusion
I'm not one to take it for the cause
All the things I've lost I never really wanted to own
Remember time never fails to pass
So don't you ask for the things I've never shown
Shifting and searching your way through the maze
Like a shock to the brain that'll drive you insane
Just a thought from the time that you had half a life
But you left it behind now you're walking that line
I'm burning, still running, I'm on my way
You want - Times caught - Why run? - Times done
I want to search for a serious life
Searching inside pleading for all the answers
And every course that I chose to take
Never going to make the same mistaken turns
Taking every chance while the circumstances
Arise so there might be a chance to start
Want to put all these things behind us
That grip and grind us and rip them all apart
Overcome by the sight of the screams in your eyes
There's no way to get hold cause your spirit's been sold
And sometimes faith don't control this game
And losing your mind ain't as bad as they say
I'm burning, still running, I'm on my way
Time's falling, life's calling so far away
You want - Times caught - Why run? - Times done
8. Faces In The Dark
Why can't you see?
You shouldn't have left me here
Far away from you
A long time ago
You brought me along
On this harrowing ride
I guess my fortune left
I rushed right into this dark descent
I couldn't hide placed on trial again
I dare not tell where I've been
Dark's descending, no use in pretending
That you know what's going on
The outlook is scary
Your face you bury in your hands
Seems you're not so strong after all
Faces in the dark, revealing what's inside
I'll always be a restless spirit
On an endless ride to eternity
Mortified to hear the truth you say to me
Dark's descending, no use in pretending
That you know what's going on
The outlook is scary...
Faces in the dark, revealing what's inside
Do you ever sleep?
You know you're testing the waters
Of mortality
Always drifting at sea
Feel the pressure start
And it tears you all apart
Dark's descending, no use in pretending
That you know what's going on
The outlook is scary...
Faces in the dark, revealing what's inside
Faces in the dark, playing with your mind
Faces in the dark, revealing what's inside
Faces in the dark
9. The Middle Of Nowhere
I used to think that life's a game
Meant to play then fade away
And take the journey slow
To the twilight of my days
Now my thoughts are so alive
I'll die trying to turn back the hands of time
I'm not sure what I found
Broken free from the
Self-created problems inside
I never had a reason to want to carry on
Watch the night begin to fly
You see a strange light from within
Don't try to fight it when you're feeling lost
And drained completely
Because of where you've been
In the middle of nowhere
You sat and watched from underneath
All the weight of broken years
Then along the way the nights
Left you shaking ever near
To the end that you desired
When you lost the fire the line was very clear
And all the things that I've found
Melting away like the rain that never
Seems to stop I never had a reason to doubt
You would carry on
Watch the night begin to fly...
Never look back, understand
Don't fade away and let it slip from your hands
I don't know how to feel
I don't know how to deal
Bound and stripped of all I really know
Pieces of the afterthoughts
When you saw that all was lost
There's nowhere to go this time
Now you finally know the cost
I can't save you from your thoughts
In the middle of nowhere
10. Lost
You followed me through changes
Thinking things could work out fine
I was in need of rescue
On that cold forsaken night
I was the only one in the way
Sinking into a deep divide
Seeing through to the outside
Was always so far out of sight
Time goes by
Wasted on the words
And although we tried
So much is still unheard
Am I lost inside?
You were the only one
Who could help me see beyond this haze
You made the weight of the world I carried
Somehow lift away
I threw away what I held sacred
All the things I orchestrated
Pieces of me fell all around
And some just won't be found
Time goes by...
Totally lost in the world
I've been reeling in pain
From the loss of my soul
I've been dealing
All that's here and gone
And it won't be long
Speak to me now
I don't know if I'm fading
A ghost in the light's
Laughing while I'm degrading
All that's here and gone
You know it won't be long
'Til there's no more sound
I'll drown it out I won't feel a thing
Time goes by...
Totally lost in a world I create in the dark
Totally lost in a world I create