Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: MacAlpine, Tony
Label: Sun Dog Records
Release: 2015
Duration: 59:15
Rating: 4/5
It’s not Jason Becker, not Marty Friedman, not Kiko Louriero or Chris Impellitteri either, but Tony MacAlpine. The real deal, head and beard. Tony MacAlpine is an American virtuoso, first a guitarist and keyboardist, and on top of that a composer, arranger and producer. The man is considered one of the most unique bridges between classical music and metal shredding!
»Concrete Gardens« is Tony’s twelfth studio album overall. This musical great, who turns a round 55 at the end of August 2015, churned out solo studio albums practically back to back all through the nineties. Then in 2001 it all ground to a halt. In the meantime he made good money as a collaborator of Steve Vai and on the G3 project. A full ten years went by before Tony finally put out a self-titled new studio album in 2011 on the label of his employer Steve Vai, reviving his solo career. Four years later, »Concrete Gardens« came into the world too.
Tony invited drummer Aquilles Priester (Primal Fiear, ex-Angra) to join him on the album, but he played practically everything else himself, except for the bass guitars, where he got help from three additional bassists. Just under an hour of music is a blast straight into guitar fantasy land, flying on the wings of top-notch wizardry with the guitar bible and masterful command of the language of six-, seven- and even eight-string theory.
For all the spiky, bristling attitude that the “post-thrashed shredding” of the guitar phrasing leaves in its wake, the album is incredibly alive and has a real live feel. With an excellent balance of the three basic building blocks, guitar, bass and drums, it effectively fills and makes the most of the whole sonic spectrum. Even though the album’s basic language of musical expression is the guitar, there’s plenty of room in the whole story for Priester to really cut loose on the drums too. The way he stretches and loosens up the guitar phrases with witty, multilayered forms, through his drum passages, is flat-out stunning. No wonder he made the shortlist of candidates to replace Mike Portnoy at the Dream Theater auditions. And of course the album also packs a ton of merciless double bass drum pounding, which goes hand in hand with his generally metal disposition.
As is the norm with Tony MacAlpine, »Concrete Gardens« is also seriously weighed down with classicism. At times so many notes get fired off per unit of time that your ears can get saturated, which creates the feeling that the whole thing repeats itself a bit and comes across as monotonous. Still, Tony remains first and foremost devoted to musicality, so the songs of course have head and tail and well-crafted lead motifs that take the dominant position despite the constant sifting of note lines with bursts of guitar fire. And lest anyone get the wrong idea that MacAlpine is just a guitar »shredder«, he tacked Maiden’s Wish on at the tail end, where Tony shows off exceptional hand skills in classical piano technique. Which makes sense, of course, since we know he’s an academically trained pianist. Treats like this were a staple of most of his early records. And not everything on the album is subordinated to speed and muscle-flexing. There are also moments played at a slower tempo, where the guitarist’s top-notch feel for melodic compactness and for dosing out just the right amount of notes and arranging them just so shines through especially clearly (Poison Cookies).
As a whole, the album also has an exceptional wealth of moments that lean experimental, and Tony takes careful pains to make sure the songs don’t fall apart into loose motifs because of it. That’s why they keep a lot of compactness. One of the most successful examples of this direction is Square Circles, where Tony is joined by special guest, the outstanding guitarist Jeff Loomis (Arch Enemy, ex-Nevermore). The album is also decidedly dark a few times, like the tracks Man in a Metal Cage and, near the end, Red Giant. Both are built on a mid-tempo but venomously rolling beat driven by Priester’s double bass drum pedal work.
»Concrete Gardens« is the kind of album real Tony MacAlpine fans can only dream of. It serves up fresh wet dreams for everyone who loves boundless guitar slashing and top-shelf virtuosity, dosed with a hefty helping of musicality that ties the album’s musical body together and holds it up.
Lineup
Tony MacAlpine – guitar, keyboards, bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Aquilles Priester – drums
Jeff Loomis – guitar on track no. 8 (left channel)
Pete Griffin – bass guitar on tracks no. 1, 4., 6., 7., 8.
Lucky Islam – bass guitar on track no. 9
Sean Delson – bass guitar on track no. 11
Production
Tony MacAlpine
Track list
01. Exhibitionist Blvd. (4:28)
02. The King’s Rhapsody (4:45)
03. Man In A Metal Cage (4:20)
04. Poison Cookies (5:06)
05. Epic (5:00)
06. Napoleon’s Puppet (5:13)
07. Sierra Morena (4:52)
08. Square Circles (5:12)
09. Red Giant (5:10)
10. Confessions of a Medieval Monument (5:43)
11. Concrete Gardens (5:03)
12. Maiden’s Wish (4:19)
