Tragik-Outlaw

Self Produced
2009


Back in the mid-1990's aspiring musician/songwriter Phil Vincent submitted some of his songs to the management of the Scorpions and Ozzy Osbourne in the hopes of launching his career as songwriter. Shortly thereafter he decided to take his songs and record them himself. He released his first full length solo album back in 1996. Since then he has been steadily cranking out the albums under his name as well as the bands Circular Logic and Tragik. This is the second release from Tragik and the line-up consists of Damian D’Ercole on guitars & bass, Dirk Phillips on drums & Phil Vincent on guitars, keys & vocals. The influences are fairly varied as I hear the Beatles, Journey, Extreme and Dokken. I guess I was expecting straight hard rock and was taken aback when the opener "....In the name of...." came on in all it's AOR glory. It sounded like a ballad that would have been done by Journey or Survivor back around 1982. A good song, but it struck me as odd choice of an opener for what I thought would be a rocking album. Then on comes "Two timer" which is a stunning, mid-tempo track somewhere between Dokken and Whitesnake. Much of the rest of the album is back and forth between slow and medium paced efforts. I enjoyed the bulk of the tracks even if there isn't much of a cohesive sound throughout the whole album. It's very obvious that Phil Vincent and his band play the kind of music they love and that shines through in the quality of the music. They never do a song just because they think they should do that style. Even though I may not have liked every song I can certainly acknowledge that there was a genuine feel to every song because they believe in what they are doing. That sort of approach shines through and goes a long way.