Tragik - 'Faith Healer'

(Rock Company)

Tragik are back with ‘Faith Healer’ an album bursting with driven energetic melodic hard rock! Phil Vincent is always reliable to deliver something enjoyable as I’ve stated before for someone who releases a lot of songs, he always seems to manage to make sure all his releases have something good to offer. Obviously, some are better than others but if you’re a fan of his distinctive vocals and varied song writing it’s hard to find a true stinker amongst his massive body of work.

Vincent is always conscious of crafting albums that differ from the last and gives his various projects a tone or style of their own. For example, Legion always has a darker, melancholic vibe and here with Tragik its full on upbeat bright and breezy melodic hard rock.

Vincent once again brings in his Legion band mate Vince O’Regan to play lead guitar on the bulk of his songs and proves once more with his stunning guitar work how well these pair collaborate together.

‘Hanging By A String’ showcases Vincent’s Beatle’s influences once more albeit through a third party as this tune has shades of Enuff Z’nuff to it. The quirky ‘Robot Love’ is surprisingly impressive with its infectious groove. It’s songs like the album opener ‘Back On The Road’ which really show Vincent at the top of his game both in song writing and performance as this song should be a radio hit and a firm favourite with melodic rock genre fans! He’s never one to stick to one theme and does experiment with influences and styles, the most obvious track on ‘Faith Healer’ to show this is ‘Don’t Know What To Believe’. It grabbed me initially with its full-frontal keyboards but what makes it different is it’s strong British AOR tone evoking similarities to FM or Outside Edge.

‘Faith Healer’ is another corker from Vincent, a genre musician who always put’s his heart and soul into every release and always waves the flag of his love of melodic rock and AOR as high as possible. He focuses on creating something that he knows will tick the boxes genre fans will enjoy while appeasing his own need to create something he himself is proud of regardless of others opinions at the same time. This energizing groove driven rock ‘n’ roll album is another shining example of what a great artist he is!

8/10

Essential Track - 'Back On The Road'

Review by Woody