WILD DOGS - DEFINITIVE AND OFFICIAL BOOTLEG

There's so much to say about Wild Dogs, the first album for the Canadian band Cirkus. For a debut album, to go with a double CD of 2 hours and 20 min of music was definitely gorgeous. Nevertheless, you won't feel the whole thing long at any moment. Cirkus explores a so wide range of textures that the album pass as a blink of an eye. There is a strong touch retro prog by the structures of the songs, the construction and the instrumentation but it's new in the same time by the way the fusion is made with ethnic accents and world beat colors. It is definitely what I could describe as organic prog.

We are far from the so called progressive bands who fill CDs of endless guitar solos with keys backgrounds punctuated by boring vocal melodies. On Wild Dogs, each song has a signature, an identity and a specific mood. These guys really know to write nice and powerful melodies. The instrumentation is solid and imaginative to create textured emotions.

The concept album is well balanced from the first 19 minutes epic Dalhousie's Walk, world beat oriented, with a stunning instrumental section to the dark and intense Johnny Got His Gun passing by a latino slap bass drive called Limbo or the instrumental Wild Dogs where the pizzicato violins lead a surprising groove. Lots of symphonic rock stuff like Redeemer, Harlequins, Nightwatch or What's Remain. Over all, an exploration really rich and wide that will eclipse some moments where the mastering is not perfect. Definitely an essential "must have" of the genre.