Throughout all of the adversity and breakups that White
Wizzard has seen, Jon Leon remains the constant. Amazingly, each reincarnation
of the band is seemingly stronger than the last. This can be attributed in part
to Jon’s continuing development of his songwriting, and his increasing ability
to find killer musicians. White Wizzard’s current form is almost a solo project
at this point; Jon has teamed up with drummer Devin Lebsack, but Jon now does
the vocals. As you might imagine, then, the vocals are one of the few changes
on the band’s new single: “Marathon of Dreams”. Jon’s range is nowhere near as spectacular
as the previous vocalists of the band, but he is no slouch either. He’s able to
hit the notes he needs to, and his voice will definitely grow on you after a
few listens. Fans of vocalists like Jason Decay (Cauldron) will certainly appreciate his style.
The next area of change on “Marathon of Dreams” is in the
production. My first few listens to this song were on bandcamp, and honestly,
the production was quite poor. After buying the track on iTunes, however, I’m
not sure if it’s actually a much higher quality version of the song, or if I’m
used to the sound now, but it’s actually pretty good. The bass is still pretty
much in the forefront of things, but that’s to be expected with White Wizzard.
It certainly doesn’t sound as polished as “The Devil’s Cut” was; however, it’s
by no means unprofessional sounding. If the production doesn’t work for you at
first, give it a few more listens on decent speakers and it should grow on you. The drums are huge, and that comes through clearly during the intro drum solo. The guitars are pretty standard sounding, but they get the job done.
By far the best part of “Marathon of Dreams” is the song
itself. This is among Jon’s best written songs; only outdone by a couple of the
band’s more epic tracks (“The Sun Also Rises” and “Iron Goddess of Vengeance”
come to mind). The classic harmonized guitars everybody loves are back,
alongside plenty of catchy vocal lines. This track throws a bit of a curveball
at you in that the drums really get going at certain points. The use of double
bass shows White Wizzard reaching speeds they’ve rarely gotten to before, and
this additional energy really suits the band. Regardless of your thoughts on
Jon’s vocals or the production, it’s hard to deny the power of this track, and
things are only looking up (again!) for White Wizzard at this point.
Final Rating
4.6/5 or 92%.