Any fan of technically excellent melodic guitar playing should buy this release. Any fan of Spock's Beard probably will buy this anyway, but for those of you who are looking for more of the same, you won't find it here.
Firstly, all the tracks are instrumental. Personally I love that because I'm really into that whole session muso thing. Steve Morse, (no relation), Paul Gilbert, Carl Verhayen all spring to mind as similarly skilled players who know when to put the brakes on and stop shredding. There is much less of the hard edge rock metal sound and more of the deeply melodic almost lyrical expression here with multi-tracking allowing Mr Morse to harmonize with himself in breathtaking fashion.
Secondly there is a decent spreading of style. There are slower ballad-like tracks and choppy rockier tracks to keep everyone happy and the emphasis is always on the melody.
Thirdly, this cd has staying power. You'll have your favourites straight away and you might only play… more »

Any fan of technically excellent melodic guitar playing should buy this release. Any fan of Spock's Beard probably will buy this anyway, but for those of you who are looking for more of the same, you won't find it here.
Firstly, all the tracks are instrumental. Personally I love that because I'm really into that whole session muso thing. Steve Morse, (no relation), Paul Gilbert, Carl Verhayen all spring to mind as similarly skilled players who know when to put the brakes on and stop shredding. There is much less of the hard edge rock metal sound and more of the deeply melodic almost lyrical expression here with multi-tracking allowing Mr Morse to harmonize with himself in breathtaking fashion.
Secondly there is a decent spreading of style. There are slower ballad-like tracks and choppy rockier tracks to keep everyone happy and the emphasis is always on the melody.
Thirdly, this cd has staying power. You'll have your favourites straight away and you might only play those for a while, but you will later discover tracks that didn't do it for you as much first time round and you'll wonder how you missed them. "Chroma" being the case in point for me. It's a really simple funk riff (played by guesting Ryo Okumoto) with wandering guitar. Simple stuff at first but mindblowing when you get into it.
In conclusion, this is just great guitar playing that any fan of Spock's Beard will recognize elements of, and any fan of music will appreciate. Buy it now.