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VOODOO CIRCLE
Hail To The King
AFM Records
www.voodoocircle.de

VOODOO CIRCLE is the longtime side project of ex-PRIMAL FEAR guitarist Alex Beyrodt. Debuting with their self-titled album in 2008, VOODOO CIRCLE was put together to pay homage to their '70s and 80s Blues Rock idols. Sound comparisons have been made to WHITESNAKE, RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE, and LED ZEPPELIN. Hail To The King is their seventh studio album.

The opening track "Lay Down Your Love" is chock-full of guitar mastery. Beyrodt mixes clean and distorted guitars throughout, and gives it all when it comes to his solo sections. The song has a (newer) WHITESNAKE-vibe to it, and that may have to do with David Readman's (PINK CREAM 69) throaty and soulful vocals.

A song titled "Let It Rock" would have you believe it's a high energy rocker, but something's a bit off here. It sounds like the band is just going through the motions with a by-the-numbers anthem. There's no spark here. The intro to "On The Edge" is led by a hypnotic drum run courtesy of Markus Kullmann (TEN). Readman slows things down as he laments about his desperation.

"Sweet Little Sister" mimics "The Zoo" by the SCORPIONS, thanks to Beyrodt's meaty riffage and the thumping bass of Alex Jansen. Readman gives one hell of a passionate delivery on "Stand Your Ground". While the rest of the band does their part, they do dial it back to feature David prominently.

"Black Country" is VOODOO CIRCLE's version of "Kashmir" by LED ZEPPELIN. While the track is quite enjoyable, it does go on a bit longer than it needs to, clocking in at 7:13. "Billy's Song" uses Hammond-style organ to maximum effect to give the track a little more texture than the ones that preceded it.

"All For One" begins with symphonic and progressive elements before shifting gears to fuzzy guitars and rousing vocals. You have to wonder what magic they could have created if they kept the intro section consistent throughout the song. The album's closer "Hail To The King" would have fit well in the Dio-era RAINBOW catalog, musically and lyrically.

Seven albums in and VOODOO CIRCLE still sounds great, but their continuing tribute to the sounds of their Rock heroes is growing a little tiresome. Do you want to hear VOODOO CIRCLE do WHITESNAKE? Or would you rather hear WHITESNAKE do it? You know which band does it better.

Sure, there's always been bands that sound like this other band that came before them, but how long do they last? Are we still talking about GRETA VAN FLEET? It's time for VOODOO CIRCLE to venture out and create their own signature sound. What they fooled around with on "All For One" is a good place to start.

3.7 Out Of 5.0