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Voodoo Circle: More Than One Way Home
 Alex Beyrodt's Voodoo Circle continues paying homage to classic hard rock & metal bands of yesteryear with their latest release for AFM Records, More Than One Way Home. I mean, if you (like me) still carry on a love affair for vintage Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Led Zeppelin, then you owe it to yourself to take this ride along with Beyrodt (Primal Fear, Sinner, Silent Force), bassist Mat Sinner (Primal Fear, Sinner), vocalist David Readman (Pink Cream 69), keyboard player Jimmy Kresic (Liquid One, Steve Lukather), and drummer Markus Kullmann (Dezperadoz).
Between Beyrodt's 'Ritchie Blackmore-meets-John Sykes' styled guitar licks, Readman's bold, David Coverdale influenced vocals, and Kresic's powerful Hammond & synth textures, More Than One Way Home is a classic hard rock & metal feast that will bring you back to the late '70s & early '80s instantly. High fueled rockers like "Graveyard City", "Tears in the Rain", and "Heart of Babylon" more than remind of Whitesnake's 1987 self-titled release, filled with Beyrodt's crunch-o-rama riffs and blazing leads, while Readman's bluesy delivery on "Cry For Love" pushes all the right 'Led-Snake' buttons. The ballad "Alissa" has hooks aplenty to go along with Readman's soaring pipes, while Kresic's rampaging Hammond drives the pulsing "The Ghost in Your Heart" into Perfect Strangers territory. Fans of Sinner or Primal Fear will love the hi-octane metal of "Bane of My Existance", complete with a scorching guitar solo from Beyrodt, and a similar formula works wonders on the heavy "The Killer in You". In fact, you'll notice that the back end of the CD just keeps getting heavier and heavier, with "The Saint and the Sinner" and "Victim of Love" (yep, no stopping the Whitesnake love from this band!) both hitting home runs with no shortage of powerful, bluesy metal elements. The closing "Open Your Eyes" end the CD with a bang, another driving, melodic slice of heavy rock featuring powerful vocals, amazing Blackmore styled guitar work, thunderous rhythms, and tasty Hammond organ.
I obviously really dug Voodoo Circle's previous release Broken Heart Syndrome, and I think they've even topped that one here with More Than One Way Home. Some might scoff that there's nothing original going on here, and they would be right, but damn if this band hasn't nailed an era that is still so near and dear to many of us, and delivered some truly melodic, memorable, kick ass songs in the process. More please!
Track Listing
1. Graveyard City 4:05
2. Tears in the Rain 4:31
3. Heart of Babylon 4:11
4. Cry for Love 4:17
5. Alissa 4:40
6. The Ghost in Your Heart 5:31
7. Bane of My Existence 3:47
8. More Than One Way Home 4:33
9. The Killer in You 3:52
10. The Saint and the Sinner 4:45
11. Victim of Love 4:56
12. Open Your Eyes 5:11
Added: April 5th 2013
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score: 
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 3795
Language: english
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Voodoo Circle: More Than One Way Home
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2013-04-05 11:13:54
My Score: 
Three releases in and you really have to take your hat off to Voodoo Circle mainman Alex Beyrodt (Silent Force/Primal Fear/Sinner). Album one and two (Voodoo Circle and Broken Heart Syndrome) took turns paying homage to Dio era Rainbow and Gillan-less Deep Purple, both doing so with a certain style and panache. However with More Than One Way Home, Voodoo Circle have changed focus, doing so with the same pin-point accuracy that marked out their first two offerings as being far above the usual retro-fare. So with two classic bands of the seventies ably covered, where do we head off to now? Well the eighties of course, with MTOWH turning the focus on 1987-Whitesnake era Whitesnake, not just for inspiration, but for the complete basis of what is going on here. This is almost unashamed hero-worship - but man is it good!
Beyrodt has always had a strong hint of one-time Whitesnake strummer John Sykes about his playing, but here he adds a hint of Adrian Vandenberg to cement the sound. Factor in the ever David Coverdale like tones of David Readman (Pink Cream 69/Adagio) and MTOWH doesn't sound like Whitesnake, it actually could be Whitesnake.
Now whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing will play a strong part in whether it is even worth your time going any further with this review. However if you even hummed the updated versions "Here I Go Again" or "Crying In The Rain" with a hint of glee in your voice, or found the bombast of "Still Of The Night" or power balladry of "Is This Love" irresistible, then be prepared for some new tunes to rattle relentlessly round your head. "Graveyard City" kicks things off in lively fashion, so immediately true to its influence that you actually wait for Readman to go "Oww, Oww, Owwwwwwwww!" as only Coverdale can. He doesn't, be he'd be as bloody well to, however when he does open his mouth, it is only to reinforce the overall vibe that you'd expected. From there Beyrodt, Readman, Matt Sinner (bass - Sinner/Primal Fear), Markus Kullmann (drums) and Jimmy Kresic (keyboards - Kiske-Somerville) set about infusing "The Ghost In Your Heart", "The Killer In You" and the further homagely titled "The Saint And The Sinner" with the pomp and thrust all primetime Whitesnake has. While "Alissa" adds the Vandenbergian acoustics to the mix and "Victim Of Love" puffs out its chest for a marriage of stripped back and all out, that can only be the power ballad.
The halls of rock wannabes are littered with bands who have been vilified for taking another outfit's blueprint for success and attempting to build their own temple of rock with it - just ask Kingdom Come. However the homage paid here is so reverential, so knowing, so intended, so damn good, that instead of turning the whole thing into some sort of sad pastiche, More Than One Way Home actually becomes something of a triumph.
Are you as likely to listen to this album as you are Whitesnake at their best? Actually, you just well might. That's how convincing it is.
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