How do you call a situation when two great musicians are stuck in a cage? There isn't probably a proper name for it but I must correct myself. The following artists that I am going to talk about here have never been stuck with each other when working on their studio project. That same project was named THE CAGE back in the late 90s and its creators were, and are, Dario Mollo, an Italian guitarist, and ex-BLACK SABBATH and EMPIRE singer, Tony Martin. It has been almost ten years since their second album, "The Cage 2", was released and I do believe, possibly some of you as well, that it is about time for a third to come around. Well it did and it was named 'The Third Cage".

Since its beginning years ago, THE CAGE project has always been a sort of a Hard Rock / Melodic Metal type of scenery. Mollo, the mastermind behind the music, provided tight heavy riffages to the side of rocking crossovers. When it comes to the "The Third Cage", I think that it is the hardest album of the three. Though the spirit of melodic Hard Rock was reserved, there were plenty of moments, maybe due to the guitar sound affiliation, where I felt that I was actually listening to BLACK SABBATH of the late 80s and early to mid 90s where Martin once starred. As a fan of SABBATH's "Cross Purposes" album, I was overjoyed when I was evident to the great harmony between Martin's voice and several of the beautiful darker edges.

The Hard Rock course seemed to have some of reminders of the 80s version of the genre that was tremendously produced. Coming out with several of what would seem to be as commercialized melodic rockers, those were really good with a rather low level of cheesiness. The main riffs, even as traditional as they sound, felt rich and inspiring by a wonderful atmosphere that each individual song holds. Martin, though many years have passed since his prime moments with BLACK SABBATH, showed that his artistic nature of composing melodic singing rhythms and lyrics, needless to say graceful performing, never actually weakened.

The emotive essence of the closing power ballad of "Violet Moon" cracked me open like an egg shell following the elegance of its deliverance. Though I feared that it would be overly stretched due to its almost eight minutes of length, it lived up to be a hit. "Wardance" is probably one of a few tracks that impressed me with their verses than their chorus, which usually supposed to be the peak moment of nearly every song. Martin's singing rhythm is amazing on these sections. "Wicked World" is a modern like Hard N' Heavy written and performed almost to perfection. I think that it represents one of the best mixtures of hard to the core Rock with Metal.

In the bottom line, "The Third Cage" is a great comeback album of THE CAGE project, if it can be recognized as such. Both Mollo and Martin are busy folks, yet I sure wish it wouldn't take long for the next album.