Blackmore’s Night-Secret Voyage

SPV
2008

It’s another chapter in Renaissance-rock fusion style that Blackmore's Night Renaissance have become known for. There are no real surprises here for anyone familiar with this act which it’s pretty much bland ramblings with lots of syrup and very little soul. Vocalist Candice Night has a decent range and she’s not afraid to use yet at best it’s tolerable and at worst it’s fluffy and oftentimes lacking emotion. Still her vocals have more character than much of the music for the most part. Ritchie Blackmore is without a doubt in the top ten if not a top five hard rock/metal guitarists of all time. Yet that was before he became King of the gypsies I guess. Not that anything he does now could really tarnish his legacy, his prime was so rich and he was so influential that he certainly established himself years ago. That’s why he can pump this stuff out people still buy it because of his name. I hear the Renaissance part of their music although it’s a bit processed and clichéd oftentimes sounding like something you would hear the gypsies in an old Hollywood movie do. However the “rock” portion of the music is even more watered down if it really exists at all. The music is very glossy and more Ritchie Blackmore is often delegated to just popping out a few brief little runs here and there. It’s all too smooth and restrained for someone who lived for the big, riff–driven jams that he was known for in Deep Purple’s prime and the first few Rainbow albums. I think the motivation is here to create some sort of storytelling type feel, but everything about this album is just very fluffy and there just isn’t very much captivating about it. So this is one voyage that didn’t really go anywhere.