Member:
Octavio Trimmingham
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by Octavio Trimmingham)
Date:
11/21/2002
Format:
CD (Album)
Band personnel:
Michael Sadler - vocals, keyboards, bass
Jim Crichton - bass guitar, moog bass
Ian Crichton - acoustic and electric guitars
Steve Negus - drums, percussion
Jim Gilmour - keyboards, backing vocals, vocoder, moogs
In the early to mid 70's, Toronto, Ontario produced two of the finest rock bands in the music world today. One has become very popular and found success all over the world and goes by the name, Rush. The other band goes by the name SAGA and is virtually unknown in the U.S. but has remained highly successful and renowned just about everywhere else in the free world. Both are equally talented in both the writing and playing department and even share some musical distinctions. That is where the similarities end though.
Silent Knight was SAGA's third offering and while it was not their biggest selling album, to me it was their crowning achievement. Another album with more ease of listening, flow, integrity and incredible musicianship would be tough to find. All of SAGA's releases to date had been wonderfully produced, not only in the musical aspect of it but in the packaging and artwork. The outside presentation for their early albums was just as important as the contents and it showed. The fantastic subject matter depicted on the album covers were a brief hint to the fantastic subject matter that the buyer would find within the music on the inside. This correlation would change as the decade passed by but I'll leave that story for someone else.
Greg Chadd had left after the release of their second album, Images at Twilight and was replaced by Jim Gilmour on keyboard duties. The definitive SAGA line up had now been secured with his joining up with the group. His skills are apparent on this album and the band's prominent driving use of keyboards/moogs throughout. If you like keyboards, you probably already like SAGA. If you like keyboards and have never heard of SAGA, start checking them out with this awesome album.
Two more concert setlist staples are presented on this release as well. "Careful Where You Step" and "Don't Be Late (Chapter 2)". I usually treat the whole album as a single piece of music when I listen to it...repeatedly of course. Other stand out tracks include "What's it Gonna Be?", "Too Much to Lose (Chapter 7)" & "Someone Should".
I highly recommend this album to anyone who is looking for something new, interesting and different to listen to and not feel they've tired of it before they've been able to absorb it all.
Happy listening,
(!rKu$
The new SPV remastered version of this CD features a bonus video track of the original "Don't Be Late" video that used to air in the early days of MTV. http://www.spvusa.com/
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