Red Circuit - Trance State:
This is one absolutly incredible album! I have no idea how I've orginally missed this one! Glad that I was able to find it now. This band is about to release a new one and I so can't wait to hear it as well!
Product Description
Red Circuit are a true Prog Metal Supergroup, comprising of Sri Lankan
born singer, Chity Sompala (ex-Avalon, ex-Firewind), keyboardist Markus
Teske (formerly with the hardrock band Sheela and better known as
producer and engineer for Vanden Plas, Symphony X, Neal Morse, Mob
Rules, etc.), guitarist Oliver Noerdlinger, bass player Tommy Schmitt
(ex-Zeus) and drummer Frank Bodenheimer. In the quest for true
technical and musical perfection, Red Circuit went one further and
called upon Patrick Rondat, Adagios Stephan Forte and Stephan Lill from
Vanden Plas to add their touches of guitar prowess and recorded Trance
State in Germany at Bazement Studios near Frankfurt.
Inspired
by a volume of poetry by Klaus Kinski, all the album's lyrics deal with
the complex subject of human dishonesty in all its forms. The ten
compositions certainly belong amongst the absolute best that the prog
metal world has produced; besides the technical perfection, these
exceptional musicians, in an extraordinary fashion, have breathed a
deeply emotional and atmospheric life into each of the songs. Exotic
instruments, acoustic stringed instruments, bombastic choirs and the
finest vocal arrangements pump blood (RED) into the heart of a
fabulously composed machine, comprising of the most complex engine
(CIRCUIT) imaginable. Melodically with a view to the highest standard
of the genre, Red Circuit open a new door to Prog Metal and march forth
to the pulse of this machine into a new dimension of prog metal.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First rate melodic prog metal, May 31, 2006
Red Circuit is an awesome super group consisting of some of the most
talented musicians in the melodic and progressive metal genres. It is
primarily the project of Markus Teske, one of the greatest producers to
come out of Germany. He is best known for his work with bands that
include Vanden Plas, Symphony X, Saga, Neal Morse, and Ian Parry's
Consortium Project. If you've heard the new Vanden Plas album Christ 0
and are a fan of melodic prog metal you must have loved the production
on it big time. Bringing in Vanden Plas vocalist Andy Kuntz to
co-produce the album, Markus Teske handles the keyboard work and much
of the songwriting.
One reason why Red Circuit's Trance State is such a success is
vocalist Chity Somapala. The name may not ring a bell, but I'm sure
you've heard at least one of his projects: Avalon, Firewind, Ivanhoe,
Moonlight Agony and so on. Somapala is an incredible vocalist and
terribly underrated. He's always reminded me of another Sri Lankan
singer, Roy Khan. His smooth, expressive voice is both powerful and
utterly emotive and it allows him to portray a huge spectrum of moods.
This album could be his best performance in his career yet (along with
Avalon's Eurasia) in that he delivers amazing vocal harmonies that
exude melody and power dripping with emotion. For example, the opening
track, whose Eternity X-like keyboard intro by Teske is masterful in
itself, finds Somapala going for a Lande meets Khan style with added
percussive work and great breaks inserted with sound effects and
melodic solos. "Is It Gold?" is a groovy track, particularly for its
explosive main riff, but it's swiftly carried into a different context
due to heavy 70's-inspired keys and a fantastic lead solo by Adagio's
Stephan Forte. To contrast Forte's intricate playing Somapala dives
headlong into a multi-part vocal harmony that will make fans of
Threshold go crazy. And as if that's not enough, there is the
exotic-sounding "The Veil" that eerily evokes Turkey's Pentagram during
their Anatolia period. Rich Middle Eastern instruments, huge bass, a
terrific interplay between guitars and keyboards, and on top of all,
another guest solo by Vanden Plas' shredder Stephan Lill, not unlike
his awe-inspiring work on Christ O.
"Where You Are" calms things down a bit. It's mostly Teske's piano
and a sad violin juxtaposed giving way to one of the most impressive
vocal melodies I've heard all year (give a close listen between 1:32
and 1:59 especially). There are also great backing vocals in the second
half of the piece, by female singer Christine Wolff. The middle part of
the album boasts the more straightforward, groovy cuts such as "So Hard
to Be Like God" where Teske marries symphonic elements with electronic
soundscapes; "Search for Your Soul" guested by an insane solo guitar
virtuoso Patrick Rondat; and "You Might Have Been Queen", which finds
bassist Tommy Schmitt and drummer Frank Bodenheimer laying down some
complex rhythms and unexpected fills. From here on, the band's
influences, particularly in the vocal department, are again more
noticeable. "The Screen" is like a song off of Conception's Flow
masterpiece with delightful pianos while "Go Straight" feels like
Vanden Plas' heaviest moment where the guitars and bass gush out the
speakers still retaining a distinct melodic edge thanks to Markus
Teske's keyboards. Speaking of the keyboards on Trance State, Teske
proves here that he is foremost a musican and then a producer. He pulls
out all kinds of sounds from a wide musical palette incorporating it
into a very melodically structered yet also deeply heartfelt
compositional frame. His work on the final track (again with some
female vocals) is a testimony to his diversity.
This album is one of the best melodic prog releases of the year and
is highly recommended to fans of Vanden Plas, Threshold (Mac era),
Conception, and even Cloudscape whose second album is about to be
released.