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After over 10 years, Circle II Circle is
finally putting together a live album, and it features exactly 0 Circle II
Circle classics. Instead, the band crams as much of Savatage’s “The Wake of
Magellan” into 45 minutes as is humanly possible. To be fair to Circle II
Circle, they are certainly a great band, but Savatage’s music is incredibly
special to a lot of people, myself included. Zak Stevens even says it at one
point “we're still doing what you want to hear”. What makes this particular release
even more enjoyable to me is that I was at this show; I went to Wacken 2
years ago and was right up front while Circle II Circle rocked this album. For
that reason, I knew this would be a great release before even listening to it,
and after hearing it a few more times, I’m still convinced it’s a superb
performance.
As with anything Zak Stevens has been
involved with, he is a huge draw to this relase. His singing is still
astonishing. Even 14 years after the release of “The Wake of Magellan”, he is
able to deliver the songs just as convincingly. “The Ocean/Welcome” is an
incredibly bombastic intro in which he sets the tone for the entire night. Some
of his lead vocal lines also have some backing vocals underneath, and they
bring even greater justice to the original songs, as they sound more powerful. There
are just as many emotional twists in turns in the live versions of these songs
as there were in the original, aided in part by Savatage’s ability to switch
between more mellow, cleaner sections, and incredibly heavy, riff-infested
moments. The triple combination of “The Wake of Magellan”, “Anymore”, and “The
Hourglass” is the highlight here. These are probably the 3 strongest tracks on
the original album, and, for the most part, the band does great justice to
them. One of the points of interest for me back in 2012 was seeing how they would replicate
the part in the title track with 4 separate vocal lines. They were able to get
2 going at the same time, with Zak Stevens cycling through the latter three parts while the backing vocals stuck with the original line.
While I would have loved to hear and see all 4 of them being done
simultaneously, it’s better the band does a good job with this section than
risk it sounding wrong, since they don’t have the benefit of having Zak Stevens
sing 4 parts at the same time.
Regardless of that one issue, “Live At
Wacken” is still a stellar performance. Stevens sounds enthusiastic about this.
Savatage fans are amongst the most rabid in existence; they worship the band
like few others I’ve seen, and for good reason. This collection of songs,
while perhaps not the strongest in Stevens’ era (that honour goes to “Edge of
Thorns” and “Handful of Rain”), is an incredibly intense rollercoaster of
emotions. There are few singers more equipped than Stevens to deliver this.
Beyond his performance, however, the band also sounds good. They present the
songs faithfully to the originals, including some of the shreddier solos like
on “Morning Sun” and “The Wake of Magellan”.
The only true disappointment of this
release is that the band didn’t play the album in its entirety. This was not
their fault though. Wacken announced they’d play the entire album, and then
only gave them 45 minutes to do so. Given this, the song selection is almost
ideal. “Complaint In The System” is probably my least favourite track from the original
album, so they could have chosen “Paragons of Innocence” or “Another Way”, but
this was likely a timing issue. Nevertheless, if you are a fan of Savatage or
Circle II Circle, you owe it to yourself to hear this album. Being able to
experience it firsthand was incredible, and likely lifts my opinion of this
release, but it is still one of the better live albums I’ve come across. While
it is unclear if Zak Stevens will join Savatage at the Wacken 2015 reunion, I
certainly hope he will as I will be returning to Germany to see that set as
well!
Highlights
"The Ocean/Welcome"
"The Wake of Magellan"
"The Hourglass"
Final Rating
4.4/5 or 88%.
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