Savage Circus – Dreamland Manor
Century Media Records – CM 8338-2 – March 21, 2006
By Rodrigo Escandon
Do you miss the Blind Guardian era of Tales From the Twilight World and Somewhere Far Beyond? Do you wish that Blind Guardian would go back to that style? Well, one member of the band, actually former member, drummer Thomen Stauch will satisfy those who answered “Yes” for both questions with his new band Savage Circus. Dreamland Manor is the debut album that also features Piet Sielck (Iron Savior) and Jens Carlsson and Emil Norberg (both from Persuader) and it’s the perfect album for those who want this style of music. However, therein lies a problem that Savage Circus sounds too much like a clone of Blind Guardian and they don’t do that great of a job of making their own identity. Despite this, Dreamland Manor is still a very enjoyable listen.
“Evil Eyes” is definitely the highlight of the album. It’s got excellent guitar melodies and solos. It has powerful drumming, fantastic singing, huge choirs and it is very catchy. However, its excellence causes the problem that no other song in Dreamland Manor comes close to matching it and since it’s the first song of the album it really feels like the rest of the album goes downhill after its completion. This doesn’t mean that I dislike the rest but that the other songs just don’t reach the high level of quality that “Evil Eyes” reaches. “It – The Gathering” is one song that comes close to matching those heights. It’s about Stephen King’s classic novel “It” and it’s a dynamic, fast and powerful song that features a great choir but I feel that it’s a bit long. “When Hell Awakes” is the other song that also comes close to being a great song. It is definitely the most aggressive song on Dreamland Manor and it features some of the best guitar melody lines in the entire album but once again I feel that it’s a song that could have been cut shorter. This problem of song length is one that I have with the entire album in that I feel that most of the songs could have been cut shorter. Give it to Savage Circus to be ambitious in their ideas but most of these songs could have been better and more enjoyable by being shorter.
For those of you familiar with Persuader you will know how Jens has been compared to Hansi. However, I feel that Jens’s voice is rougher and not as refined as Hansi’s and therefore their styles are not very similar at all. Also, Jens also doesn’t seem to have Hansi’s great range and this is really evident in the ballad “Beyond Reality” because he isn’t able to carry this song or deliver the necessary emotion to this type of song.
The weaknesses that I have described about Dreamland Manor are really my own personal issues and I expect people to disagree with them but as I mentioned in the beginning I do enjoy listening Dreamland Manor and I look forward to more output from Savage Circus.
7/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Savage Circus Official Website
Century Media Records Official Website
Century Media Records – CM 8338-2 – March 21, 2006
By Rodrigo Escandon
Do you miss the Blind Guardian era of Tales From the Twilight World and Somewhere Far Beyond? Do you wish that Blind Guardian would go back to that style? Well, one member of the band, actually former member, drummer Thomen Stauch will satisfy those who answered “Yes” for both questions with his new band Savage Circus. Dreamland Manor is the debut album that also features Piet Sielck (Iron Savior) and Jens Carlsson and Emil Norberg (both from Persuader) and it’s the perfect album for those who want this style of music. However, therein lies a problem that Savage Circus sounds too much like a clone of Blind Guardian and they don’t do that great of a job of making their own identity. Despite this, Dreamland Manor is still a very enjoyable listen.
“Evil Eyes” is definitely the highlight of the album. It’s got excellent guitar melodies and solos. It has powerful drumming, fantastic singing, huge choirs and it is very catchy. However, its excellence causes the problem that no other song in Dreamland Manor comes close to matching it and since it’s the first song of the album it really feels like the rest of the album goes downhill after its completion. This doesn’t mean that I dislike the rest but that the other songs just don’t reach the high level of quality that “Evil Eyes” reaches. “It – The Gathering” is one song that comes close to matching those heights. It’s about Stephen King’s classic novel “It” and it’s a dynamic, fast and powerful song that features a great choir but I feel that it’s a bit long. “When Hell Awakes” is the other song that also comes close to being a great song. It is definitely the most aggressive song on Dreamland Manor and it features some of the best guitar melody lines in the entire album but once again I feel that it’s a song that could have been cut shorter. This problem of song length is one that I have with the entire album in that I feel that most of the songs could have been cut shorter. Give it to Savage Circus to be ambitious in their ideas but most of these songs could have been better and more enjoyable by being shorter.
For those of you familiar with Persuader you will know how Jens has been compared to Hansi. However, I feel that Jens’s voice is rougher and not as refined as Hansi’s and therefore their styles are not very similar at all. Also, Jens also doesn’t seem to have Hansi’s great range and this is really evident in the ballad “Beyond Reality” because he isn’t able to carry this song or deliver the necessary emotion to this type of song.
The weaknesses that I have described about Dreamland Manor are really my own personal issues and I expect people to disagree with them but as I mentioned in the beginning I do enjoy listening Dreamland Manor and I look forward to more output from Savage Circus.
7/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Savage Circus Official Website
Century Media Records Official Website
