Eric Mantel
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Review of "The Unstruck Melody"
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By: Brian Morris
ric Mantel... personally haven't listened to any previous albums from him, but this one was released earlier this year. He was introduced to me as a "guitar legend" with similiar styles to Joe Satriani, and even more so to Eric Johnson. So really enjoying their musical styles I was excited to get the cd and start listening. The first track, The Unstruck Melody starts the album in a peculiar way. Various different sounds from different radio stations as they are tuned in, perhaps a reference to the many different stylings on the album to come. After the first track I found myself curious as to where it was going. The second track Tribute is a rock instrumental which introduces you to the excellent guitar work of Eric Mantel. I find myself thinking, yes for sure this is definitely a similiar style to Eric Johnson, which is a great thing. Not only does Eric Mantel play the guitar wonderfully throughout the album, he also has great vocals, which are introduced on the third track The Simple Things. I would sincerely say this album is an instrumental masterpiece. Guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion all blended in amazingly. As a fan of "instrumental" music, I find sometimes the albums can be very predictable and the songs on it sounding the same style, even as far as the same sound on many songs on the album, which makes listening to the whole album a chore. This album has such a wide variety of styles and sounds in each song that I found myself loving every song. Not once did I think, wow I heard this piece on a previous track. This album is a definite must for any fan of the guitar, or rock music. I would also say that the album is so diverse that everyone would find something to like about it, regardless of their "genre of choice". I would also like to point out the backing vocals on the album are also great. Finding no disappointing aspect of this album I would highly recommend it as an addition to the record collection of everyone who enjoys Rock, Blues, Jazz, Instrumental, Fusion, Pop, Classical and any sub genre of each of those.
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Brian Morris / Blogger
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