From Germany Voodoo Circle bring us studio album number seven “Hail To The King”. Releasing their debut self titled album in 2008 Voodoo Circle been the side project for Alex Beyrodt ex guitarist of Primal Fear, which Alex put together to pay tribute to his 70's & 80's Blues Rock influences and idols. Over the years since Voodoo Circle were formed comparisons have been made to their sound which is similar to legendary bands like Whitesnake, Rainbow, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.

This is the first time for me listening to Voodoo Circle,, on reading the press release I was really interested to hear what they brought to the table. With twelve tracks in total clocking in at just over 60 minutes the first track “Lay Down Your Lovin'” has a typical classic rock sound ,its got the catchiness in the  chorus, vocally and musically catching that essence of Whitesnake as does “Let It Rock” high energy rock numbers some nice guitar riffs and solos, the resemblance to Mr. Coverdale in the vocals from David Readman is uncanny The superb drum driven intro on “On The Edge” from Markus Kullmann proceeds a much slower track with with David Readman singing about desperation, a more subdued bluesy number, with some nice keyboard touches, mixed into the guitar driven melody .”Sweet Little Sister” has Alex Jansen's thumping bass, with a meaty guitar riff from Alex Beyrodt. “ Stand Your Ground” sees Readman deliver a very very passionate & emotional vocal ,with the rest of the band doing their bit, but making the vocal the highlight of this track. ”Black Country” at over seven minutes long has the Led Zeppelin tribute and influence stamped all over it the vocal, musical arrangement of the track just says it all.”Billy's Song” has that classic Hammond Organ thrown into the mix to give a bit more depth to the track, while “Strangers In The Night” has a prog rock feel to it,” All For One” and “The Sound Of Eagles” just sound monotonous and really don't get me hooked or interested, more filler tracks for me.”Hail To The King” is a great way to finish off the album, it has that Dio and Rainbow feel to it.

“Hail To The King” starts off a really good album, but when you get to the second half of the album, it seems to lose its way, don't get me wrong musically and vocally the tracks are very well presented on that front, but they just sound too much the same for me with some of the tracks going on for too long time wise, in turn getting monogenous and tedious for me. However its definitely worth checking out ,for me it was a game of two halves as they say, but other people may enjoy it more.