Three years past “IV” and Winger return with their fifth studio release, titled “Karma”. Let’s take it from the top. 

Whoever is into what Kip Winger is doing outside the Winger band, knows what kind of a huge artist this guy really is. I unreservedly suggest to whoever is not familiar with his personal work, to do so immediately. There are wanders to discover there. And it comes to the point that the new Winger album is reality… 

Starting from the cover, I can only bow to the simplicity of it, while it is quite vivid with it’s red logo highlights. But let’s turn our attention to music. Because that’s what sells and not covers…Their desire to return to the 80s is quite a simple task for this band. I guess that the object here is to pass a relevant feel to it however with a quite modern approach. Does it work? More than that, is my opinion. Low tuning on guitars, heavy riffs, what can one say about Morgenstein’s drumming? Unparalleled performance. I was more than happy to discover that this album resembles the feel of that magnificent “Pull” with cuts like “Deal With The Devil” and “Stone Cold Killer” (highly recommended for wild parties…), harder forms like “Pull Me Under.”. My favorite, though, comes one from last…”After All This Time” and here is a clean-cut blues song that sent me back to Kip’s personal work where you neer know what’s next. And to top them all, here comes “Witness”, a seven-minute “rhapsody”. What’s quite distinctive in this track is the unbelievable work on guitars by Reb Beach. He plays what he had not played for the last ten years…You have to listen to believe… 

Concluding, this is, if not the best, for sure one of the top-3 releases in 2009. there is no reason for dispute whether this is a CD you should buy. It is imperative to buy this CD if you dig REAL hard rock music, performed by people that served the style and know how to play it as few others do.