Seventh Wonder's second album Waiting in the Wings managed to surprise me with the performance of their new vocalist Tommy Karevik. The singer on their debut album "Become" was Andi Kravljaca, whose limpid voice worked rather well with the material, so I had my doubts whether Karevik would be up for the task prior to listening this record. Karevik has rather unique voice, which is transparent but also has some edge when it's called for... nonetheless, whilst Karevik's vocal performance is at times really good, I can't help but notice that every now and then it feels as if his vocals stick out unfavourably from the mix. This especially happens when the backing offered by the band is a bit too crowded, so I reckon the composers are the ones to blame.

The music on waiting in the Wings goes pretty much along the lines of their debut offering. The songs are a blend of progressive rock with traces of neo-classical metal. As with their debut, there are some really good sections here and there, but once again the group succumbs to occasional nonsense whilst playing. Regardless, as a whole the material on this album is pretty steady in terms of quality and enjoyable to listen to.

In addition to the new vocalist, another evident change on the new Seventh Wonder album compared to the previous one is the better production. Tommy Hansen (Circus Maximus, TNT, Helloween, White Willow) both mixed and mastered this record, and the result is a good sounding record with no obvious shortcomings (except for the musical ones). All in all, Seventh Wonder are on their way to success but they still need to hone their compositional skills a bit.

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- MAGE (August 28th, 2006)

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LINE-UP:
Liefvendahl, Johan: Guitar Karevik, Tommy: Vocals Söderin, Andreas "Kyrt": Keyboards Blomqvist, Andreas: Bass Sandin, Johnny: Drums
Producer:	Seventh Wonder
Mixing by:	Hansen, Tommy
Mastering by:	Hansen, Tommy

	TRACKLIST:
	01. Star of David 02. Taint the Sky 03. Waiting in the Wings 04. Banish the Wicked 05. Not an Angel 06. Devil's Inc. 07. Walking Tall 08. The Edge of My Blade 09. Pieces Length: 51:26