Band:	Circle II Circle
Album:	Delusions Of Grandeur
Style:	Progressive heavy metal, Progressive power metal
Release date:	April 25, 2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Fatal Warning
02. Dead Of Dawn
03. Forever
04. Echoes
05. Waiting
06. Soul Breaker
07. Seclusion
08. So Many Reasons
09. Chase The Lies
10. Every Last Thing
11. Stay [limited edition bonus]
+ Revelations (video) [live] [limited edition bonus]

"Delusions Of Grandeur" is the title of the new Circle II Circle, a band that you probably know in reason of his singer, Zak Setvens who was also Savatage's singer in the past. Every time that Circle II Circle releases a new album, we're all excepting something big, I mean that the musicians and of course Zack Stevens are top performers so it's just something logical? Unfortunately even if all their releases are good releases, something magic is always missing and "Delusions Of Grandeur" will not change this trend?

"Delusions Of Grandeur" is well done and full of good songs really. The album is a nice crossover between US and European Power and we even have (but that's little, really...) some Progressive touches which probably comes from Savatage's influences. A song like "So Many Reasons" with its big riff is clearly influenced by US Southern Metal when "Fatal Warning" is a lot more European with big blasting double bass drums and really commercial chorus. All in all, this is Heavy Metal in the spirit with really melodic riffs and catchy vocals. Seriously "Delusions Of Grandeur" is catchy but one more time with Circle II Cirle, the releases is also really common. I'm not saying that it's bad but it's really classic and basic one more time and will not give you any feeling of surprise. By luck at least I feel a lot more of "US Metal" influences this time (a lot more than on the previous releases which were a bit too much "European") and that's good thing.

Of course "Delusions Of Grandeur" is perfectly produced even if I regret that Zak's voice is maybe a bit overproduced sometime. On the other hand the cover of the album is classy and the musicians all perfectly do their job. Also despite this little problem of production, Zak Stevens is a really good singer and his performance on the album is really good. Actually "Delusions Of Grandeur" is just too common and not new to be convincing but still, this is a good album, especially if you like Circle II Circle.

In the end, we're one more time in front of a new album which simply doesn't give anything new to the listeners. I know that it's hard to be original nowadays but I was expecting something a bit more original from a band like Circle II Cirle. Though if you like US Metal, catchy melodies and great vocal performances, be sure that "Delusions Of Grandeur" will be for you. Let's just hope that Circle II Circle will produce THE ultimate and surprising album the next time because if they can't do it they will maybe become boring and repetitive for their fans?