Ever heard something so incredibly wonderful it put you in a
\nstate of shock?<\/p>\n
You’ve got to hand it to Trent Gardner of Magellan; this guy has
\ncojones the size of grapefruit. As a side project, he’s put
\ntogether a cast of prog-rock luminaries to do a rock opera on the
\nlife of one of the most gifted men in history, Leonardo da Vinci.
\nThe cast list includes James LaBrie of Dream Theater, Chris Shryack
\nof Under The Sun, Steve Walsh of Kansas, Mike Baker of Shadow
\nGallery, and most of Dali’s Dilemma as the backup band. This is not
\njust something you throw together on a weekend. It’s ambitious,
\nit’s complex, it’s daring…<\/p>\n
…and to quote Keith Jackson, oh mah LORDY it’s good.<\/p>\n
\nLeonardo: The Absolute Man<\/i> is the best rock opera I’ve heard
\nsince the first time I heard
\nChess<\/i>, which was longer ago than I care to remember. The
\nmusicianship is superb, the music moving back and forth from
\nstraight-ahead progressive metal to operatic fillips and flourishes
\n(yes, that is a trombone on “This Time, This Way”).<\/p>\n
Specific kudos have to go to the drumwork of Jeremy Colson, who
\ndid what some would call impossible: he learned an entire CD of
\ndrum machine parts, then turned them into “live” drum parts, adding
\nhis own flourishes. It certainly resulted in some killer drum work,
\nespecially in the vicious, thrashing thrumming percussion on
\n“Inventions”. Wayne Gardner’s guitar is wonderful. Trent Gardner’s
\nkeyboards are outstanding. The production, contributed by longtime
\nRush producer Terry Brown, is flawless, the sound crisp and
\nunmuddied.<\/p>\n
As for performances, James LaBrie owns the part of Leonardo from
\nthe first line he sings. He’s alternately passionate, fierce, and
\nwondering, one of the best vocal performances I’ve heard. Chris
\nShryack and Steve Walsh, whose characters are strongly interlinked,
\nsing strong parts, including a powerful duet on “Inventions”. Lisa
\nBouchelle’s performance as Mona Lisa is perfect. All the other
\nperformers are excellent as well.<\/p>\n
There isn’t a bad vocal line on the CD, and the songs meet the
\nchallenge. “First Commission” is heartbreakingly beautiful,
\n“Inventions” is fierce and cynical, “Shaping The Invisible” is a
\nbrilliant solo, “Reins of Tuscan” is brutally honest…<\/p>\n
I begin to run out of adjectives here, and for good reason.
\nLeonardo<\/i> is the best rock album I’ve heard this year. Waste
\nno time. Get a copy for yourself.
\nThe Absolute Man<\/i> is absolutely incredible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5791],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37107","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-cast-recording","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37107"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37107"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}