I stumbled upon guitarist Sergio Michel through a Facebook post, and discovered he was not only an up-and-coming musician, but also had a relatively new album, Tropical Depression<\/i>, on the market. Reading up on Michel intrigued me enough to check out his work.<\/p>\n
If I had to sum up Michel\u2019s work on this album, it would be three words: work in progress.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that Michel is a talented guitarist and songwriter; tracks like \u201cKick Rocks\u201d and \u201cArt Deco Freakazoid\u201d offer plenty of proof of this. Often with tongue planted firmly in cheek (\u201cWhite Girl Needs\u201d being a prime example), Michel rips through 19 songs in just under 50 minutes, often showcasing his talent as a guitarist well.<\/p>\n
Where Tropical Depression<\/i> suggests that Michel is still honing his craft falls into three categories. First and foremost, the production work needs a few coats of paint\u2014specifically, pod down the rhythm guitars, pod up the lead guitar and vocals, and cut back a bit on the vocal echo. Often, it was difficult to ascertain what he was singing due to the overall mix, so if there was a message in the song, it got lost. Similarly, on tracks like \u201cThe Fight,\u201d the overmix on the rhythm guitar overrides the vocals and drum work, which is a shame, while on others like \u201cDifficult Man,\u201d the rhythm guitar is mixed so hot that it\u2019s difficult to hear the chord progressions.<\/p>\n
Second, I\u2019d advise Michel to expand on some of the ideas he\u2019s working on. \u201cMidnight\u201d is, simply put, a brilliant track, but it feels like it wasn\u2019t fully developed as a song\u2014as if there was more of a story to tell musically. While I\u2019ve always been a proponent of the concept of \u201ctell your story and leave\u201d in terms of songwriting, it\u2019s a bit of a letdown when, to the listener, it feels like only part of that story was told. With numerous songs clocking in at under three minutes, they serve more as vignettes, and while they leave the listener wanting more, it leaves them unfulfilled as well.<\/p>\n
Finally, Michel needs to tighten up the backing vocals, which occasionally seem to go slightly out of tune. \u201cSouth Beach Nights\u201d is a very good song, but the backing vocals occasionally going flat, unfortunately, take away from the overall power of the track.<\/p>\n
This all may read like Tropical Depression<\/i> is not a good album; in fact, there is plenty on this disc to celebrate. The groove laid down on the all-too-short \u201cTime Has Come\u201d suggests that Michel is destined to become a name to deal with in the hard rock\/guitar hero scene. If Michel can learn from the missteps on this one, I have a feeling his next release will be opening some eyes in the industry, making them wonder how they missed him all these years.<\/p>\n
And there are moments of sheer brilliance on this one. \u201cAurora Technicalis\u201d features some of the best production and clearest vocal work on the album, laying down a solid groove that ends all too quickly. Likewise, \u201cHeavy\u201d is a track that lives up to its name, creating a sonic powerhouse that locks the listener in.<\/p>\n
As it is, Tropical Depression<\/i> is a good, but flawed, effort. The promise of Michel\u2019s talent is clearly evident on this disc, and I\u2019ll be eagerly awaiting to hear what he has to offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10771],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46430","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sergio-michel","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46430","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=46430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46430"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}