Back in the mid- to late-’80s, when I was a happy young
\nheadbanger, there were a group of musicians who were working hard
\nto become famous on the quality of their instrumental work, only to
\nhave their accomplishments eclipsed by the likes of Joe Satriani. I
\noften read a lot about people like Vinnie Moore and Tony MacAlpine,
\nbut I never went out of my way to pick up any of their albums.
\n(Shame on me, I know.)<\/p>\n
One couldn’t blame either of them if they got frustrated with
\nthe scene leaving them in the dust so unjustly, and threw in the
\ntowel. But both have persisted in their craft, to their credit, to
\nthe point where Moore utilizes MacAlpine’s keyboard talents on his
\nlatest album
\nThe Maze<\/i>. A solid album overall, it does show that Moore’s
\ntrue genius comes out when he doesn’t try to be a guitar god.<\/p>\n
First, don’t try to compare Moore to Satriani – or to anyone
\nelse, for that matter. Moore’s style is one where he goes for the
\nmelody of the song in his solo breaks, resorting to speed only when
\nabsolutely necessary. Unfortunately, one thing he does resort to is
\nuse of guitar “flashes” like we heard in a lot of ’80s metal.
\nFrankly, these are not needed; they sound out of date, and cloud
\nthe actual music.<\/p>\n
Moore seems to do his best, surprisingly, when he’s not trying
\nto light up the speakers with his playing. “Never Been To
\nBarcelona” is an outstanding, gentle piece which puts Moore on
\nSpanish guitar (if that’s not an actual acoustic he’s playing, it’s
\na damned great effect!) and dazzling the listener with his riffs
\nand fills. It’s technical, without being gaudy – and it’s where he
\ncould easily stake a claim to fame.<\/p>\n
Likewise, “Watching From The Light” is a light-metal track which
\nhighlights not just the guitar work of Moore, but the work of the
\nentire band – MacAlpine, bassist Dave LaRue and seemingly
\nomnipresent drummer Shane Gaalaas. If anything, putting the band as
\na whole ahead of the six-string pyrotechnics shows Moore to be a
\nquality musician, and it works well for the track.<\/p>\n
While the bulk of
\nThe Maze<\/i> does focus on the guitar work, it still is
\nenjoyable, if not spectacular. Tracks like “Cryptic Dreams, “Rain,”
\n“In The Healing Garden” and the title track all show Moore’s
\ntalents, though one can’t help wishing for more of a band effort on
\nthese tracks. While some of the tracks inch past the eight-minute
\nmark, don’t you dare label these as progressive rock; such a
\nlabelling in this case wouldn’t be fair to either Moore or to the
\nprog-rock genre. Moore’s claim to fame was – and still is – rock
\nguitar in the metal vein.<\/p>\n
If you love good guitar work, you’ll definitely want to pick up
\nThe Maze<\/i> and absorb everything that Moore has to offer. But
\nI truly believe that if Moore were to step away from the guitar-god
\nlimelight and just put out a record featuring guitar work like we
\nhear on “Watching From The Light” and “Never Been To Barcelona,” he
\nwill finally become the household name he deserves to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6686],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38979","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-vinnie-moore","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38979","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38979"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}