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REVIEWS Phil Vincent by Derric Miller Comments: How many times do you see this list of responsibilities when you look at the members of a band: all vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; all synthesizers; bass and drums. Probably close to never. Singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Phil Vincent can boast that he literally does damn near everything on his new album, Unknown Origin. Unknown Origin is Vincent's ninth studio album. Vincent began his career as a songwriter, sending songs like "Stargazer" to Ozzy and "Save Me" to the Scorpions. Somewhere along the line, Vincent decided he'd give it a whirl and see what he can do on his own, and nine albums later, you get Unknown Origin. Vincent describes his own music as "melodic rock with influences by Journey, Harem Scarem, Talisman, Dokken," and a few others. You'll definitely hear the Dokken influences in his vocal delivery. He sounds like Don Dokken before the singer lost his edge. "Thanks for Nothing" starts the CD, with a heavy riff and understated keys/synth. This isn't a feel good song by any means, as he sings, "Sometimes I don't know if I'm dead or alive. Maybe I should choose my fate with a loaded .45." You'll hear some XYZ in the composition as well. This is a wicked way to get things going. Vincent immediately turns things to a lighter mood with "Dear Friend." This is more Journey or Boston, owning an early '80s rock vibe. The chorus is melodic and catchy, but it's not as strong as "Thanks for Nothing." You'll hear synthesizer in most of the tracks, and they are completely under the surface most of the time. In fact, if you have the volume turned down low enough, you might not even catch them. Not sure if this is a production miscue or if it is planned. One track you'll hear this on is "All I Need." While the drumming is tight, the song is odd, clean during the verses and noisy at the chorus, and it's a bit confusing. This does have one of the best guitar solos on the CD, albeit brief. He goes back to his strength on "Make No Mistake," another heavy, melodic rocker. This once again sounds like Dokken, especially with the smart drum fills, but you'll hear a bit of Yes at times too. The keys play a larger role at times, and maybe would have been better had the guitar handled those musical passages. The drumming, either by Vincent or Tanion DeAngelis, sounds like a machine gun. Cool. "Going Through the Motions" will kick you in the teeth. This is one of his heaviest tracks, with smart harmonies and a churning guitar rhythm. At two minutes into the song, it's just Vincent singing along with the keys, and this guy is a damn good singer. You'll get a couple of ballads as well, "Faithless" and "In The Blink of an Eye." The latter is an acoustic track with stellar two-part harmonies. This is the part of the show where the ladies cry into their bra before they chuck it at Vincent. If you haven't heard Vincent before, you need to check this album out. He has hits and misses, but knowing that he wrote every song and played every instrument, as well as handling lead vocals, you are hearing a real talent. PHIL VINCENT Mr. PHIL VINCENT returns with a new CD release. The album is titled "Secrets"’ and contains 15 tracks. Musically nothing has changed, and so this is another typical strong PHIL VINCENT Melodic Rock record that sounds like a mix between DOKKEN, JOHNNY LIMA, 80s AOR and a slight modern touch here and there. The 2nd part of this CD is showcasing the talent of Phil, because that's where we can find some really sensational songs. I am talking about wonderful AOR/Melodic Rockers like "Strong enough" ,"You fool no one" ,"Writing on the wall","Slow burn" and "One good reason", all very impressive sensational AOR rockers with memorable choruses. The similarities to 80s DOKKEN are very clear sometimes, but Phil does give his own twist to the songs. Like I said, the beginning of the CD is a slight let-down, but from track 7 until 13 Phil makes it up with some outstanding work. Therefore the CD gets a high rating, and I can easily recommend it to the AOR/Melodic Rockfans! (Points: 8.5 out of 10) TRAGIK Phil Vincent is in imminent danger of over exposure with three releases about to hit the market at the same time. The three releases are a solo album called ‘Secrets’ and two band projects called Circular Logik and Tragik. Note the “K” in each band as he gets a bit stressy if you use a “C”. Hard RoxX has had its fair share of success and failures over the years we have been going. The failures can wait for another day but I take great pride in the fact that Phil has always credited us with breaking him in Europe. As a result he burnt me a CD of this release to listen to during my latest spell in hospital. Maybe it was the morphine but listening to ‘Poetic Justice’ I went through one of those musically induced religious experiences that you never forget. Previous examples include the first time I saw Thin Lizzy live, an Ace Frehley acoustic track that Tommy Vance played on the radio and a US hardcore outfit whose debut album featured a gunman walking into a children’s playground with a gun! I don’t expect to reach such a high again, you never do the second time around (Thin Lizzy being the exception that proved the rule) however‘ Poetic Justice’ sees Phil performing to his usual high standards (honed over countless excellent solo albums) only with punchier guitars (shredder Damian D’ercole), more keyboards (Phil) and razor sharp drumming (Dirk Philips). Openers ‘Giving In’ and ‘Can’t Find The Words’ are a match for the best that Phil has produced on his own, although I am particularly partial to the little guitar twirl at the beginning of the former. ‘Black And White’ rocks big time and if you don’t get melancholy listening to ‘Jessica’ you are a heartless bastard (I cried liked a total wuss!). As a result ‘Shadows Of Loneliness’ seems out of place until the majestic swathes of keyboard chords end the track. ‘At The Shore’ builds up slowly before ending with some crashing chords courtesy of Damian D’ercole, a theme that is followed on ‘Long Way From Home’. At times you fear that Damian may just fall asleep such is the effect wrung from every chord, however Phil keeps him awake with some ‘Maxell - Break The Sound Barrier’ effect keyboard playing. The foot tapping head banging‘ Before It’s Gone’ ups the tempo. This is followed by ‘Jaded’ the only track I am not too sure about. It rocks but is too deliberately discordant (and modern?) for my tastes. The album ends on an emotional low note thanks to the morbid, but rocking, ‘Remember’ and the weepy ballad ‘Never’.‘ Remember’ highlights what a great drummer Dirk Phillips is, trust me, high on morphine I heard every beat of the drums synchronised with each guitar chord to the nano second (I guess they fix that in the studio these days) whilst ‘Never’ reminds me that Phil is a massive Paul McCartney fan. I had begun to worry that Phil Vincent was losing the plot by not working with other musicians. Whilst ‘Poetic Justice’ doesn’t mean that I am right it certainly makes for convincing listening. BTW Phil, I still think you need more keys!!! Krank it up mate and sod all those air guitarists! 8.5/10 (Clean) Review taken from FIREWORKS Magazine issue #6, by Phil Ashcroft PHIL VINCENT - CIRCULAR LOGIC (Song Haus) Phil Vincent's career is like a Chinese banquet, before you've had the chance to swallow one course here comes the waiter with the next one! The prolific American multi-instrumentalist allegedly has an album finished before the previous one's hit the streets, but this time he's even outdone previous efforts by delivering a double album containing two hours of music just 8 months after his last album, 'Tragic'. Featuring 10 songs on each disc, 'Circular Logic' has given Phil the opportunity to stretch out a little more in various directions, and has resulted in his strongest album to date. The catchy riffs and vibrant keyboard fills are still there, but it's in the little departures that the main strength of this album lies with Phil wearing some of his influences on his sleeve. Everyone from Journey to Pink Floyd and all points inbetween go to make up an album of great depth and diversity. Another change is he's hired a rhythm section for this one, and no offence to Phil's abilities on those instruments but bassist Glenn Cipalone and especially drummer Dirk Phillips have not only performed very well, but also given Phil the space to concentrate on other things. There are the usual elements like the heavy guitar riffs on songs like 'Rise Up', 'Too Far Gone' and 'Take It Away', but on a lot of songs the keys are even more prominent than before, like the intros to 'Tupelo Drive' and the 10 minute epic, 'If'. On 'Torn' his admiration for The Beatles comes out and the song also features a nice guitar solo from Michael Reisenbeck. When making notes for this review I put an asterisk next to anything I thought was particularly good. I ended up with 11 from 20, and the other 9 are pretty good too, but the Aldo Nova/Jeff Cannata strains of 'Time In, Time Out' and 'If You Ever Want Me' are feelgood AOR at it's best. Talking of Cannata, I think it's him that Phil's voice reminds me of, although he does have a tendency to try to sing too high on the rockier tracks, especially the openers on each disc. His voice is a bit of an acquired taste anyway, but for the most part he makes the best use of what he's got. Other highlights are the pompy and bombastic 'Long Hard Look', the ballad 'Second Chance' which is just vocals and layers of keys, and the aggressive but melodic 'Almost Home'. The two epic songs, 'If' and '3.45am', are the most mature and adventurous things he's ever attempted with different parts and time changes, the film soundtrack type intro to the latter even puts me in mind of Giuffria's 'The Awakening'. There's an instrumental on the second disc called 'Another Hit & Run' that's pure pomp, and is a sequel to the slow and moody 'Hit & Run' from the first disc, and shows yet another side to Phil that I'd like to see him explore more. Despite the diversity on show it's the catchy hard rock with punchy keyboard stabs that Phil excels at, and if you want to know what he's about just check out a 4 song sequence on disc 2. It starts with the riffy 'Shining Through', then continues with 'In The Balance' and the hooky 'Doin' My Best', up to the quality melodic rock of 'Heart Of Stone'. Along with the continuing improvement of his writing and playing this is his best produced album to date, with a powerful compressed guitar sound, live sounding drums, and those big keyboards. A job well done! Phil, you've earned a break! Well maybe not. Check
out an article about Phil in the Providence
R.I. Journal-Bulletin New Review from ElectricBasement.com Review by Italian Magazine "Flash" New review by Nick Baldrian in MHR Magazine New review from Brazilian AORsters E-zine Phil's CD No Turning Back was reviewed in the March '99 issue of HARD ROXX Magazine. Click here to read the review "No Turning Back is Phil's fourth album and best of them all" Roger Brosel - AOR Land The Music of our lives - Spain "Phil has a lot of talent and I am looking forward to following his career" Larry Schorling - Riased on Radio - Sweeden "12 great tracks for you AOR lovers out there" Carl Lagerholm - Music Box - Sweeden "Phil Vincent is a very talented artist who deserves to become famous for all his hard work. His music is often very impressive and AOR fans should be glad that a guy like Phil is making real music in this 'alternative' world." Gabor Kleinbloesem - Strutter 'Zine - Netherlands "Tough wiry axe work, augmented by urgent keyboards and a powerful rhythm section forms a sturdy framework over which Vincent stretches his earnest vocals, strong melodies and big, pulse agitating, Ponti - like choruses." Brian McGowan - Hard Roxx Magazine - England 
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