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Thread: New proggy Christmas music from The Wizards of Winter

  1. #1
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    New proggy Christmas music from The Wizards of Winter

    The new CD by the band The Wizards of Winter is available for pre-order. It is similar in style to their self-titled album released in 2014. I would highly recommend it to folks who enjoy the music of TSO or proggy-ish pop (Styx, for example)

    The Wizards of Winter are a NJ-based rock band with some harder rock and prog leanings, with a very certain TSO-influence (they started out years ago as a TSO tribute band, but began creating their own material at the request of their fans). They created a bit of a stir in 2014 with their "“March of the Metal Soldiers” - a re-imagining of the Christmas classic “March of the Toys” whose proceeds benefited the Wounded Warrior Project. Their East Coast winter tour caught the attention of former MegaForce Records Jon Zazula and he and Testament vocalist Chuck Billy signed them to their management company.

    The new album - "The Magic of Winter" - once again has cover artwork done by Ioannis (Saga, Dream Theater, Uriah Heep, Allman Bros, etc) and was produced by Eric Rachel (Symphony X, Skid Row, Styx).

    Yahoo Music debuted their lead single off the album - a real Prog-Pop earworm - heavy keys and smooth vocals from former TSO vocalist Guy LeMonnier:



    GuitarWorld.com debuted an instrumental track from the album, "Flight of the Snow Angels", featuring some pretty cool guitar work by Fred Gorhau:




    I am a fan of these guys - I love Christmas music, especially well-produced rockin' and proggy stuff like this.

    Check out their website to pre-order the new album or check out tour dates: http://thewizardsofwinter.com/

    ALBUM ART The Magic Of Winter.jpg

  2. #2
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Interesting... I am commenting in this thread to remind myself to check these guys out a little closer to Christmas. I could use some new Christmas music! ... but not yet.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    I didn't want to know that there are/wereTSO tribute bands...

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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I didn't want to know that there are/wereTSO tribute bands...
    Sadly, there are over a dozen of them (that I know of). These guys here at least realized early on that they had much more to offer and I am glad for that. I played their self-titled Christmas album a ton last year and am looking forward to this new one.

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    I have been curious about these guys. They are playing a 1500 seat theater in my hometown in December. We already have tickets to see TSO in Grand Rapids MI in December, but was curious about these guys in a much smaller venue. Anyone seen them live?

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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    I have been curious about these guys. They are playing a 1500 seat theater in my hometown in December. We already have tickets to see TSO in Grand Rapids MI in December, but was curious about these guys in a much smaller venue. Anyone seen them live?
    I have seen them live the last two years - in addition to seeing TSO. I highly recommend their concerts. They will not wow you with special effects, dancing girls, or dragon visuals (like today's TSO Show), it is more akin to TSO Shows from 2000-2001. It is a good 2½ hour concert - all original Christmas from start to finish, with quite a few proggy or proggy-pop instrumentals thrown in. They still throw in a couple TSO standards, but the vast majority is their original material. TSO's original and long-time narrator, Tony Gaynor, is the narrator for the concert and former TSO vocalist Guy LeMonnier is one of four vocalists. Being in theaters, they are more interactive with the audience, which is a cool thing. While I still enjoy the TSO Show for the enormous spectacle of it all, these guys just focus on the music and have a ton of fun. This is a big growth year for them - they have been selling out shows in the Mid-Atlantic and New England area for a few years now - they are finally reaching other parts of the country.

    These are a couple fan-filmed videos - sound isn't great but you get an idea of what they are about:



  7. #7
    I enjoyed the Wizards of Winter when I saw them a few years back. Didn't know they were doing originals now.

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    And from their new album, a pretty cool proggy song featuring all four of their vocalists - Ebeneezer:


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    Pretty cool to hear the Baltimore Ravens use a Wizards of Winter song for their holiday highlights reel - and play their music during the game - for this video, they picked one of the Wizards more proggy instrumentals from their first album:


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