Dmitry Epstein from DMME has written some kind words about the Tainted album from Tragik. Read it in full here.
And Your Music Blog had this to say about the album…
tainted
More reviews!
The latest bunch of reviews that have come in:
US site Sea Of Tranquility write about Sunrise Auranaut and The Ocean Of Unspoken Words here. It is well written, and honest, thank you Steven.
Tragik’s latest opus Tainted got a mixed review from French metal site Metal Integral. The original is here, and you can find a translation to English here.
And last but not least some reviews for Still Living and their wonderful Ymmij opus. German site Musikreviews wrote about theme here. And Dutch site RockPortaal’s findings you can read here. We will try to translate to English soon, or use Google :).
Tons Of Reviews!
Our recent releases have been getting lots of attention around the world. Not all love of course, but hey we are indies and cannot afford to pay loads of advertising money. 🙂
But still, some very nice reports coming back.
If you want to know what some of the press is saying, check the next links:
UK, The Midlands Rocks: Brian McGowan calls Tragiks Phil Vincent the insider’s AOR hero, so that is quite the compliment in a way. Read his thoughts on the album here. Thank you Brian! Also find reviews for Still Living and Cryptic Nature there.
Dutch Lords Of Metal also wrote about these releases. Not all friendly… But the Still Living one is quite nice. Read that here.
UK’s Woody’s Rock Reviews gave Tragik – Tainted an 8 /10. Read here why.
And also Mr. H. from Zeitgeist / The Rocker tells us Tainted is “another enjoyable release for those of who grew up with this kind of music”. Read his thoughts on his website.
And a Strongly Recommended for Tainted!
The odayrox website have done an extensive review of Tragik’s latest album and they LOVE it!. Here it is:
The always busy Phil Vincent is back with one of his best projects,TRAGIK, and their 7th album “Tainted” to be released tomorrow December 15. Seems that Vincent is concentrated now in his solo career and TRAGIK, and this has paid its dividends. His other bands like D’ERCOLE has been put on hold, and LEGION dissolved.
And while Damian D’Ercole still provides the guitar solos here, and former partner in LEGION Vince O’Regan guest in one guitar solo, this new TRAGIK album is a quite different beast from previous Vincent works.
And that are welcomed news; Vincent / TRAGIK have created a very interesting, different piece of music here.
For the most part, the DOKKEN influences are gone in favor of a more elaborated recipe of melodic rock with added poppy melodies, electronics, and some lite proggy stuff akin KANSAS.
Of course, the melodic hard rocking tunes are still present as are part of TRAGIK’s DNA, such as ‘Can’t Take it Back’ with a feeling close to DANGER DANGER Paul Laine-era, the modern ‘‘Til I See You Again’, or the extremely melodious ‘Regrets’ with some BAD HABIT on it.
But TRAGIK explores here other interesting, new territories on this album.
Opener ‘Welcome Back’ and ‘Face of Sorrow’ are straight melodic rockers, but with some cool electronics in the backgrond in the vein of recent NEWMAN works, and you have a surprisingly poppy tune in ‘Into the Great Unknown’ with Swedish-like melodies all over.
Or check the pretty original ‘Not Over You (Listen)’. The song blends rocking modern guitars with programmed drums in the ’80s way, plenty of sound effects and almost danceable beats.
Title track ‘Tainted’ is pretty melodic hard rock, but even here the groove is different from anything released by TRAGIK before, then ‘Harsh Reality’ is a classic funky melodic rocker, but with a modern presentation.
And then we have TRAGIK developing a proggy side, yet very melodic.
‘Out of Nowhere’ is a midtempo tune with an AORish feeling however the progressive arrangements makes this track one of the most captivating on the album.
Another solid number in this vein appears with ‘Nobody’s There’, showcasing a KANSAS or even BOSTON influences in the main melody, same with ‘Heaven’, a quite long composition with pianos, synth atmospheres and smooth vocals.
There’s a ‘new’ TRAGIK / Phil Vincent in “Tainted”.
Forget the (unnecessary) cheesy cover artwork that doesn’t reflects what is musically packed inside.
You’ll find elaborated songs on this album, always with melody as main focus yet rich in arrangements. It’s also really varied, covering different styles with, for the most part, remarkable results.
Strongly Recommended
01 – Welcome Back
02 – Not over You (Listen)
03 – Can’t Take It Back
04 – Into the Great Unknown
05 – Face of Sorrow
06 – Out of Nowhere
07 – ‘Til I See You Again
08 – Nobody’s There
09 – Regrets
10 – Tainted
11 – Heaven
12 – Harsh Reality
Phil Vincent – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Drums
Damian D’Ercole – Lead & Rhythm Guitars
Dirk Phillips – Drums
with:
David Zychek – Guitars, Bass on #12
Mike Mason – Drums on #12
Vince O’Regan – Guitar solos on #3, #8
Rockportaal review Tragik!
Another very nice review from Dutch site Rockportaal. And again, find the original version here, and the translated version next:
With the album Tainted by Tragik in front of me, I am somewhat surprised. First of all, I am amazed that Tainted is the seventh album of this melodic hard rock band. In addition, I am lustily looked at by busty ladies from the artwork. But that has already been the case on previous albums. Do not judge a book by his cover, they say and that certainly fits like a glove for this seventh album by Tragik.
An album with a diversity at the top with the rock side as a continuous basis. Not always very very pompous like in ‘Til I See You Again’ and Nobody’s There and even rock / sweet as in Regrets. On the other hand Face Of Sorrow certainly fits in this list, although this composition is catchy due to a stabile guitar sound and ditto drum.
In Can not Take It Back, the rock side reveals itself for the first time on the album. The chorus is pleasant and catchy, even call it poppy and the guitar solo sounds so warm and familiar that Can not Take It Back still lingers. Later on the album is also the title track infused with a big rock sauce against the border of rock and roll. Striking on Tainted is the seventies sound that this modern band puts down. In terms of sound, it tends towards a band like Boston and the vocal / backing vocals in Tainted, but also in Nobody’s There and the long Not Over You (Listen) fit perfectly into the whole. That link to a band like Boston returns to Welcome Back, but then mixes with the Electric Light Orchestra at Mr. Blue Sky. Although certainly in Into The Great Unknown matches can be found with Styx at Mr. Roboto.
How wonderful that old time is put in a new jacket and in Not Over You (Listen) even goes back to the synthpop from the eighties (including drum computer).
Tragik shows a contemporary and special sound for which Phil Vincent is mainly responsible. His voice is particularly appropriate for the music on Tainted and in Heaven he shows that he does not need more than a piano and his voice to give a wonderful feeling to the listener in this extremely peaceful and beautiful composition. Nice is the acceleration halfway through the composition in which spacerock predominates and gives Tragik a more progressive side. Here too, the composition, like almost all other compositions, is enriched with a wonderful guitar solo.
All in all, Tainted is a special album that brings back memories and mixes rock and (synth) pop together. A special album that sounds nice and especially in the Boston / Styx / Elo compositions.
Thank you Maurice!
AORland review of Tainted (Tragik)
The AORland blof has written a review about the new Tainted album from Tragik. You can read the original Spanish version here.
Since that is not a language everyone is fluent in, here a translation to English with the help from google:
It is always gratifying to discover that there is another world away from so many launches via Frontiers and other major companies. If AOR Heaven delights us with great surprises from time to time along with Escape Music now it’s the turn of a small Dutch company called Rock Company
They present us with a project that is less surprising, especially because of the sound they process in some subjects. It is an album that surprises for its musical variety and for some of its compositions such as the song Not Over You (Listen) with a programmed battery that could remind the disc themes of the 80s mixed with current guitars. No less surprising is the duration of the theme, almost ten minutes with all kinds of sound effects that despite its duration for nothing becomes heavy.
Nothing has to do with the issue with which they open the album, which is all a declaration of intentions. With Welcome Back they succeed in their long playing so that the listener can begin with a great impression this album.
The same happens with other cuts of the disc that with a duration more in agreement with this type of style make their listening much more enjoyable. It is the case of Can not Take it Back that returns the disc to the path of the most current Melodic Rock. The sound approaches the Danger Danger songs played by Paul Laine, for the vocal tone of his vocalist.
As I commented before there are topics that surprise because of their structure or their presentation. It is also the case of Into the Great Unknown where keyboards in the purest Sha-Boom style are in charge of surprising the listener who finds himself with a refrain well worked but that perhaps does not help the subject to end up being brilliant.
We have Bon Jovi sounds as in the song Face of Sorrow where they offer a good quality of composition and where the sound of Keep The Faith underlies throughout the song.
The album is well structured and offers very good moments of melodic rock, it is true that it has less successful themes that may hurt your listening but well, when you find wonders such as Til I See You Again or Regrets one can take for good listening This album, without waiting for anything, I found great moments of melodic rock.
Surely they still have to travel and must decide what style they want to show in future releases as in this flirt with certain styles or sounds that mislead the listener and get confused with what you can cause the opposite effect you are looking for. You can provoke with so many changes of sounds that the one who listens to the disc goes on over and over again the songs.
An album from which one can draw several interesting topics.
New Pre Orders!
The fantastic new albums from Still Living and Tragik are available now from our webshop and start shipping immediately. Temporarily they are on sale, so all the more reason to order them now.
Still Living is a jewel case edition and includes and exclusive bonus track, the beautiful Redemption. Tragik is available as a limited edition digisleeve with enticing art.
More new releases!
Things are turning quite hectic here at HQ. 2 albums landing end of October (the progmetal double disc Pandor by Koos Thönissen’s Cryptic Nature and the soothing instrumental album Abstract Patterns by Earthshine).
December will also see 2 releases coming your way. And since they are both of a hard rocking yet melodic nature, that Christmas tree better be steady… Because besides the already announced new album Ymmij by Still Living, the explosive new album Tainted from Tragik will also become available. We are of course very happy and proud to be working together again.
Better save up, you won’t want to miss this!
And rumour has it we might not be done yet….