TOMMY VITALY - JUST ME
ICE WARRIOR RECORDS
Metal To Infinity
Tommy
Vitaly might ring a bell to some of you. No? Remember Seven Gates; the Italian
neo-classical Power Metal band? Oh, that makes a point! In psychological terms
they talk about the term ‘aha-erlebnis’, literally the ‘aha experience’,
meaning you recognize something while using the word ‘aha’! At least this
guy proved with Seven gates how to pull the strings and right now he’s
representing us his first solo-album. This record listens to the name “Just
me” and I think the man just wants to show us who he really is, musical wise
and what kind of music he adores.
The
man wasn’t afraid to ask some friends to help him out with this release.
Thomas Vikström (Stormwind, Candlemass, Audiovision, Brazen About, Therion) is
responsible for the vocals, Rhino (ex Manowar) is behind the drums and further
on you’ll hear David Shankle (ex Manowar, DSG) on the guitars, Andrea
Torricini (ex Vision Divine, Wonderland) on the bass guitar, Vitalij Kuprij
(Artension, TSO, Adagio, Ring Of Fire) and Giuseppe "Maestro
Mistheria" Iampieri (Bruce Dickinson, Rob Rock) behind the keyboards. Not
bad at all!
With
this impressive line-up mister Vitaly starts the album that is, in my opinion,
mainly influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen’s records. It was a long time ago
Malmsteen took me by the throat with one of his albums, I doubt he will ever do
it again. Nevertheless the hooks, riffs and the atmosphere on the first two
songs reminds me to the stronger releases of this Swedish Metal God. “Fly
High, Touch The Sky” Vitaly is more neo-classical Power Metal, mainly the
European kind of Power Metal. For some reason this specific track didn’t do
anything to me, that’s a pity, for sure when I hear the rest of this CD. This
has nothing to do with Thomas Vikström’s voice, which stays impressive but on
“Fly high…” it missed the right mood to me.
What
I adored was the “Air” track, a theme from J.S. Bach, extraordinary! At this
point Vitality proves again being a fan of Malmsteen, he even more shows
what a fantastic and well trained guitar player he really is. Especially on
these instrumental tracks this record pleases me a lot. They’re played with a
lot of passion, with the right feeling to touch my soul! By “Passion”,
another fantastic instrumental by the way, this shredder also shows that guitar
heroes like Steve Vaï or Joe Satriani were an important source of inspiration!
“Ready To Die” is another song with vocals and sounds more traditional, more
neo-classical to be right and once more it could have been a song for one or
another Malmsteen album. This release contains fast fingered guitars,
spectacular keyboards, technical played drums and I can easily decide it is full
of first class instrumental songs. By the orchestral “Just Me” Vitaly plays
music that comes straight from his heart. I believe this is Tommy Vitaly as he
is, not influenced by any one. This track left an impression behind and is
surely heart breaking!
This
is a very good album, no doubts about it. Tommy Vitaly gives us a beautiful
‘business card’ with “Just Me” and forever he will belong to the crowded
world of Guitar heroes. The positive point is that emotions are more important
to him than just shredding around, than just showing how fast he can play.
Vitaly is a first class song writer but if Vitaly would ever decide to write an
album with ‘full’ songs I will be more critical…
My Points: 83 / 100 (Review by Officer Nice)