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Illusion: Sleight Of Hand

Illusion is a four piece, 80s arena rock inspired, group hailing from Detroit. Their sound is somewhere between 80s Kiss and Deep Purple. Sleight Of Hand is a straight ahead rock CD that contains some interesting tracks, highlighted by the opener "Honor Among Thieves" and "Burning Bridges".

The songwriting is not stellar, relying on too many of rock's clichés. The drumming is creative and at times the guitar work stands out, but overall the CD is average riffs with average vocals. Doug Tucker handles most of the lead vocals, although all members contribute vox to the CD. You can almost see the sneer on Tucker's face as he sings. It's an emotional delivery, but doesn't quite pull it off. The instrumental sections of the songs "Silent Valor" and "Broken" work so much better than the verse/chorus.

Overall, this is an average release that will appeal to people who have seen the band live. Illusion shows signs of talent, and probably put on an awesome live show, but their songwriting simply is lacking the hook that really draws you in or the creativeness to make you feel like you haven't heard all this many times before. Sleight Of Hand is recommended to fans of 80s Hard Rock.

Track Listing
1. Honor Among Thieves 5:06
2. Silent Valor 4:33
3. Insomnia 3:16
4. The Lake 5:21
5. Burning Bridges 3:25 (Full Circle, Chapter 4)
6. Caravan To Midnight 1:13
7. Damnesia 4:23
8. Will O The Wisp 5:02
9. Down Here 2:10
10. Broken 4:41
11. Kayleen 5:08
12. The Hidden 6:55
13. Dead Scientist 4:17

Added: July 18th 2005
Reviewer: Steve Ambrosius
Score:
Related Link: Illusion
Hits: 2820
Language: english

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» SoT Staff Roundtable Reviews:

Illusion: Sleight Of Hand
Posted by Mike Blackburn, SoT Staff Writer on 2005-07-18 19:04:49
My Score:

Wow this is one rocking fantastic release! These boys out of Michigan rock hard and long, the thirteen tracks on this release cover more than seventy minutes of music and it is all killer no filler. The vocals are a little suspect at times but other than that this was a thoroughly enjoyable romp through a Rush or Dream Theatresque soundscape. All of the boys sing and play several instruments so it is impossible to know who did what but John Patrick, Jon Roybal, Ron Smith and Doug Tucker churn up a storm on this excellent release, highly recommended.



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