Circle II Circle marks the recording return of former Savatage vocalist Zachary Stevens after a few years of silence.
But though this band is very much Stevens' personal vehicle, the bulk of 2003's Watching in Silence's debut was written with the help of his old Savatage cronies Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery, and it is therefore no surprise that both groups tread quite similar paths.
If anything, Circle II Circle comes across a tad less 'metallic' and closer to the melodic hard rock (think AOR) that was so popular in the early '80s.
As such, cuts like "Out of Reach" and "Lies" offer plenty of heavy riffing bombaster, while on the flip side, power ballads such as "Walls," and especially the title track, wouldn't seem out of place on any classic rock station; but 20 years ago.
Rounding out the disc's standouts, "Face to Face" is pure AOR; its bountiful piano chords border on the grandeur of Styx; and the powerful "Forgiven" finds Stevens in a duet with his mentor, Oliva.
In short, Watching in Silence is a strong, if unspectacular, debut album from this crew of seasoned pros.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Out of ReachJon Oliva, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 04:09 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 2 | Sea of WhiteZachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 04:39 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 3 | Into the WindDave LaPorte, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 04:19 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 4 | Watching in SilenceJon Oliva, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 04:25 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 5 | ForgivenJon Oliva, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 05:02 | 11 MB | 32 MB |
| 6 | LiesDave LaPorte, Jon Oliva, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 03:26 | 7 MB | 23 MB |
| 7 | Face to FaceZachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 05:12 | 11 MB | 36 MB |
| 8 | WallsJon Oliva, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 04:28 | 10 MB | 27 MB |
| 9 | The CircleJon Oliva, Zachary Stevens | Circle II Circle | Play | 03:30 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 10 | Fields Of Sorrow | Circle II Circle | Play | 06:40 | 15 MB | 45 MB |
| 45 mins | 105 MB | |||||
| 45 mins | 308 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danny Campbell | Executive Producer |
| 2 | Circle II Circle | Primary Artist |
| 3 | Thomas Ewerhard | Design |
| 4 | Dave LaPorte | Composer |
| 5 | Matt LaPorte | Guitar |
| 6 | Jim Morris | Engineer, Mastering, Mixing, Producer |
| 7 | Jon Oliva | Composer, Producer |
| 8 | Zachary Stevens | Composer, Producer, Vocals |
| 9 | Marc Villalonga | Photography |
| 10 | John Zahner | Keyboards |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |