Archon Angel: Fallen (Frontiers, 2020)
However jaded you may be when it comes to these Frontiers projects, when they announce a new album featuring former Savatage frontman Zak Stevens, you have to take notice. It has been several years since the last Circle II Circle album, and that’s just too long to go without hearing that powerful and distinctive voice. Here he’s paired with guitarist Aldo Lonobile (Secret Sphere, Edge Of Forever) for a project called Archon Angel. The Archon Angel debut album is titled Fallen, and it features bassist Yves Campion (Nightmare) and drummer Marco Lazzarini (Secret Sphere), as well as songwriting assistance from in-house talent Alessandro Del Vecchio (Voodoo Circle) and Simone Mularoni (DGM). The stated goal of this project was to recapture the style and energy of classic Savatage albums like Edge Of Thorns and Handful Of Rain, but I’m not sure that’s what Archon Angel ended up with on Fallen. Sure, there are some vocal/choral elements on songs like “Rise” and “Under The Spell” that resonate, and album closer “Return Of The Storm” comes pretty darned close to sounding like a Savatage song. For the most part though, the songs on Fallen tend to sound like they’d fit on either a DGM or Circle II Circle album. As good as they are (and some of them are quite good), they sound more interchangeable than uniquely Archon Angel.
Album Rating
Summary: I really wanted to love this one.