Strunz & Farah are amazing artists. I own several of their albums and each... well they all rival each other for the best among them. The guitar-ing is amazingly well done, the instrumentals this band puts together is among the most intensely technical and passionate music I own. It's good.
Each album has it's own flavour, and this one's kind of jungle-y. There is a rainforest-like percussion that accompanies some amazing guitar work. When I think of this album as opposed to the others, it's a bit more laid back. There's most definitely some rippin' latin guitarin' going on... but it's more lying in the sun music if you ask me.
You owe it to yourself to at least hear some of their work, if you don't plan on going all out and buying the album... it's most definitely worth the listen. Be sure to check out their other albums as well.
Satch is pretty awesome. I've once heard him described as the guitarist's guitarist, and although I'm not a guitarist, I'm not oblivious to the intense level of technicality he brings to what he does. This was more of a mellow album, though it has a lot of intense instrumentals. I most enjoy this album when I'm just relaxing or am on one of those natural highs. Basically any state where I can just sit back and let the music roll over me.
This is a great album, the songs are intense!! Children of Bodom have the talent of creating hard core songs without loosing a varied melody. The instrumentals are technically awesome and have a sufficient range giving each song it's own flavour and unlike a lot of other artists I don't confuse one song with another. On this album I'd have to say that my preferred track is Are You Dead Yet? I've loved this song for quite some time and no matter how many time I listen to it it never gets old or repetitive. Next I guess would be Living Dead Beat... but honestly all the tracks are pretty good.
Beck's a great story, basically about this kid who gets into a band. It's really inspiring and down to earth. The day to day crap was really relatable and was almost enjoyable to watch because even though bad things happens to Koyuki (I think he even says at some point 'when it rains it really pours for me' or something) he still doesn't get majorly depressed and looks at the situation positively.
I also thought that the passion for music was successfully transferred to the reader and at some points I really wanted to pick up a guitar and start playing, though I don't know how. Some of the ways they related to the American music industry was kind of gimmicky, but it was pulled off a lot better than I've seen else where, like they won't just throw out some musician's name just so that the reader's like 'ooo they know who that is!!!' which I find largely annoying, but the people they did incorporate were given a couple of lines to explain who they were and how they fit into the story so it wasn't that bad. The story did feel like it was dragging on in some places, but those were usually the places that the guitar guy was being a douche, but it gets resolved so I guess you just have to suffer through it (though the story usually makes up for the suffering, and I guess it could be seen as a good kind of tension). I'm not done it yet so I don't know if I'm satisfied with it yet, but there are a few indicators of a happy ending so I think it'll pay off. So to sum up... give this one a shot.
I've always liked tool, but this album came together for a bit better than did their other albums. Some songs were almost transcendental. Some of the songs really make you slow down, or even stop what you're doing or thinking about and just listen. The prime example of this for me on this CD was Lost Keys. That song isn't just a song... it's an experience. It's like, the listener is in the head of someone who is lost, confused, scared and lonely. It was brilliant how they got the doctors to talk over the music to the 'main character', but the music over powers their words with the over bearing emotion so that while you hear the words, you don't care about them, because the voices don't care about you and don't understand what you're going through. They just want to 'deal with you' and get you out of there. ... It gets me every time. But it's good. Vicarious is another good one. If not buy the CD, make sure you listen to some songs (in my opinion the ones I mentioned hold the highest priority, of course).
This band is my current favourite, because of the song Hermod's ride to Hel. It doesn't matter what mood I'm in, when i hear that song... it feels like i'm soaring inside. The awesomeness, it fills me. I love the instrumentals. sometimes I focus only one the instruments and block out the voices because they just... sing to me, for lack of better phrase :P but I also enjoy the vocals. as opposed to other, similar kinds of music, I find the vocals to be oddly clear... in a guttural sort of way (if you listen to death metal/ other guttural stuff, you'll know what I mean) its almost relaxing. But yes, Hermod's ride to Hel is my absolute favourite song right now, everything in that one clicks for me, but the other songs are good too. Great album
I really enjoy this album, it's amazing. The guitar's nuts. The songs are technically intense, and sometimes when this happens the quality of the song suffers so that the guitarist can show off their mad skills, not so much the case with this album. All of the songs have amazing range and melody and can be listened to by the average person as just really great songs, not only by guitar students marvelling at what this guy can do, which is pretty intense in it's own right, but I'm hardly the person to talk up this guy's skill. This is more of an up beat album, not madly energetic, but calmly up beat, if that makes sense. I'd have to say that my favourite songs would be surfing with the alien and lords of karma, but quite honestly all of the songs are amazingly well done
Steve Vai knows how to use a guitar and can do some pretty fancy things with one... but listening to the album I couldn't help but think to myself 'if only he could channel that awesomeness into a great song'. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this album and think it's great stuff, but it's more a showcase of what he can do on a guitar and not so much an attempt at amazing song writing. You could say that the album lacks soul. So while I will enjoy it when I listen to it, I have to be in the mood for it because it's not a song I'm listening to, it's technique.
Something that kind of bugged me a bit in this album was the talking aspects of the songs. Like, the most prominent example, in the song 'the audience is listening', the supposed premise is that an elementary school aged Vai is going to play a composition for his class and his teacher is glowing with praise, but as he starts to play she says it's too loud and wild and bad mouths it... throughout the whole song. Trying a bit too hard to capture that something else. Rebel yell a bit less.
I think the deal with this guy is that he was a student of Joe Satriani, or they had some sort of relationship like that... and I'm sorry to say but he has a ways to go in comparison.
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