TRAGIK – Tainted (2017)

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

PRE ORDER:
rockcompany.nl/product/tragik-tainted/
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