What a surprise!What a pleasant surprise!!!2 years after the wonderful ELEVEN MYSTERIES album,mastermind DANIELE LIVERANI is back with another instrumental album,guitar orientated,and ,once again,Liverani is leaving the keyboard work,being 100 % focused on guitar work!The band on this album is formed of very young musicians,the only one which was on ELEVEN MYSTERIES is the keyboard player MARCO ZAGO-the 2 others are new and very talented!Musically speaking,it's a concept album with a leading voice which is present on almost track with some spoken words.The album is very melodic,mid tempo orientated and each song has a strong identity and personality!Liverani is exploring new musical territories on this album,he has a very beautiful guitar sound and he offers plenty of space to the other musicians too.The production is excellent-it's a 100 % Italian business here-and that's excellent!Even the new label for Mr Liverani is Italian-SG RECORDS!The presentation is excellent-great cover art and nice booklet aswell,plus an attractive cd,nice printed!50.50 minutes of pure delightment,musical ear candy-from neoclassical influenced compositions ,even world music,progressive metal tones on this album ,everything is very melodic and attractive,showing another face of the musical genius of it's author!Great instrumental album,Liverani's fans will be definitelly delighted and enchanted-a great musical discovery for all the instrumental albums fans!4.5 stars for something excellent,trully excellent!

Being a long time fan of JOE STUMP,it's impossible for me to be realistic and fair to judge corectly this album!Anyway,I must say that REVENGE OF THE SHREDLORD is one of the best Mr Stump's albums...or even his best to date....so far!!!!In fact,this album is so well composed and performed,that is impossible not to have the best impressions and appreciations for it!Mr Stump's unbelieveble tecnhique and fast playing makes of him one of the best guitar players of our time,and this album proves once again,if necessary,that shred trully has a king-JOE STUMP!What makes the difference for this album is the high quality of the compositions-the first 2 tracks-MAN YOUR BATTLESTATIONS and PISTOLEROS are the best tracks that Mr Stump has ever composed!Impossible to avoid the comparisons with Yngwie Malmsteen or Ritchie Blackmore-but Joe Stump is reinventing himself each time,with each new album and shows a strong personality album after album and has an endless inspiration!That's why I consided this album his best ,because it has only damn good compositions and for an album of 70 minutes,that's so rare-not to have any weak track!Almost unbelieveble indeed!The great combination between the neoclassical style and the hard rock one-is giving to the album something almost magical-a great balance between the songs and the feeling that it's author is really unleashed and full of passion in it's playing!The fact that Joe Stump is so honest and didn't make any artistical compromise in his career,makes of him one of the most respected and appreciated guitar players of our days!All my respect and admniration for a great shredder and congratulations for another great album of THE SHREDLORD!5 STARS for a masterpiece!

Finally,a guitar orientated album from one of the most talented rock musicians from la bella Italia-Mr DANIELE LIVERANI!!!Daniele is a body of work,being responsable for many excellent albums-and we have to mention here the amazing trilogy-the rock opera GENIUS,but also the great albums with EMPTY TREMOR,KHYMERA,TWINSPIRITS and PRIME SUSPECT!ELEVEN MYSTERIES is the third solo album of Mr Liverani-where our prodigal musician-well known for his amazing work on keyboards-this time is 100 % dedicated to guitar!It's absolutelly amazing the fact that Liverani is giving plenty of space to the brilliant keyboard player on this album,and this guy is making an excellent job-like all the other 2 guys!Surrounded by unknown musicians-2 Italians -drums and keyboards-and one American on bass-Liverani is totally unleashed on this album,delivering some amazing solos and an impressive guitar work overall!Diverse and catchy,the album has all the ingredients to be considered a group effort-it's not at all an egocentric album,not too demonstrative-but full of feelings and emotions during 11 very inspired compositions!From the impressive opening track-MYSTERIOUS IMPULSE which is very neoclassical and has a wild shred solo ,passing by melodic tones and jazz funk rhythms-the album has many progressive melodic compositions too-all very,very well executed and composed!A very likeble musical experience and a very,very good and inspired album in all directions!It's rare to see in the world of music that a musician is able to realise such an amazing album on guitar,but the musician is wellknown for his skills on keyboards especially!Wow indeed!Great artwork and superbe production aswell!COMPLIMENTI,Mr LIVERANI!4 strong stars!

UNHEIMLICH is the econd solo effort of the brilliant Italian guitar player GIANLUCA FERRO and this one is a true revelation of the genre!This 2010 album has been released a few good years after the spectacular debut album of Gianluca-INVOLUTION-to be as soon as possible discovered-because the debut album is amazing too!UNHEIMLICH ia quite long for an instrumental album,this could be considered a minus -but in my opinion having almost 70 minutes of excellent music the danger of boredom is not at all possible!On the contrary-this album is diverse,catchy and has many moments of pure genius!Stylistically the album could be compared to PLANET X-ON THE VIRG-ANIMALS AS LEADERS-MESSUGAH-CANVAS SOLARIS-COLLINS/WARDINGHAM PROJECT-PAUL WARDINGHAM-CHIMP SPANNER among others!So it's prog metal fusion on steroids and it's blastering!Fantastic powerful production too ,with each instrument having a perfect sound and a superbe artwork too,very original and special in my vision!Gianluca Ferro has an amazing capacity to push his technical skills to an unbelieveble level of technicity and complexity!This album is like a bomb which is continuing to explode,which is impressing the listeners in a very spectacular manner!Great modern tones and odd times,very complex and sometimes it's math prog fusion what we hear here!It's definitelly not an easy first audition-but the more spins you give to this album,the more musical satisfactions you'll get in the end !Congratulations,Gian,a terrific job here and all our rspect and admiration for such a complex and complete album!4,75 STARS becaus perfection doesn't exist!

I cannot stop myself complaining about the fact that any prog metal album is cursed to be compared with DREAM THEATER's music!I really hate this,because making today prog metal seems to be like a punishment on the altar of music,because instantly these bands who play this style ,are cursed to automatically be compared with the Americans!It's damn annoying and frustrating for these guys to prove that there is plenty of space under the sun for everybody!Why a musical style must all the time to have as term of comparison-DREAM THEATER!?!?!WHY? Well,I stop blaming DT,because I want to say a few words about an exceptional album of this superbe Italian band-TWINSPIRITS-LEGACY!It's their third album and it's-definitelly-the most mature and complex to date!Great compositions and majestic performance!The album can be divided in 2-the first 6 songs have their own distinctive identity and the monumental track of almost 30 minutes-THE ENDLESS SLEEP-is absolutelly stunning!DANIELE LIVERANI-the mastermind and instigator of this band- is a very important character in today's music and today he seems to be 200 % involved in this new project-TWINSPIRITS-which slowly became the number 1 Italian prog metal act!Goran Nystrom has a fantastic voice-and this makes the difference to other average prog metal bands! Mr Nystrom pushed here some sensational vocals-this album is almost a vocal regal for the fabulous voice of the Swede-trully impressive on every song!LIVERANI's compositions are offering Nystrom the possibility to fully express his huge talent and on this second album with Goran-this guy offers some amazing vocal performances!Amazing compositions,strong guitar riffs,a very good sound of the bass guitar too and perfect drumming technical demonstrations provided by Dario Ciccioni-a long time partner in musical crime for Daniele Liverani!A very strong album -one of the best in 2011,for sure a major highlight of the genre!All our deepest respect Mr Liverani and congratulations for an album close to perfection!4.75 STARS for something magical!