Genre : Progressive Instrumental Melodic Rock
Label : Avishay Mizrav
Origin : Israel
Official Sites :
avishaymizrav.com
Forgotten Melodies at CD Baby
Avishay Mizrav is an Israeli guy armed with a guitar and an agenda, coming to you with a full length instrumental debut delivery that is chasing the tail of premiere fusion rock giant Frank Gambale and eminent lollipop-rock Specialist Soe Jatriani. The sonic data on the Forgotten Melodies disc is enthusiastic, desperately-, sometimes, even eminently varied and does a steady job throughout of consorting to an inner image of music that finds relevant pleasure in the mere act of seeking to relate to the high definition full musculature eloquency of its inspirators. The production values of the contribution are pretty warm and fuzzy, not necessarily of the "It'g going to fry your CNS on spot!"-caliber, yet the intent is not of such niche, either. Avishay Mizrav is not (- that much -) shreddage-fixated, he instead seems to find his most keenly cultivated comfort zones through backbone-melodies, from which he prefers to deviate throughout freely spirited intermezzos and more forgiving power chord passages. Forgiving in the sense that you can get away with what you actually play as long as the body posture is correct. You guessed it right : tamely presented harmonic power chord passages on which Avishay Mizrav showcases his string picking skills via high octane automotorsport efficiency, are : present and abundant. Read more to find out more about this.
With opening track "Knight Templar", the album starts out 111% Guns 'N Roses. 0:00 to 0: 57 : "Mr. Brownstone". 0:57 to 1:31 : "Welcome to the Jungle". The disc shows abundant melodic variation, with a healthy amount of hooks sculpted out, primarily in the spirit of James LaBrie-free Dream Theater. Most often, the quality of the variation is acceptable, or even better than that. Not throughout, though. Sometimes the harmonic backdrop shows very limited will and cunning to entertain with the mere right of variation, "only to" turn into exquisite ear candy when you are about to call a yawn. So, the disc is soberly constructed with a realistic length, - 46 minutes - and keeps sharp enough of a focus on itself to know when it needs to even aggressively deviate from any favorite pastime it momentarily gets the hostage of.
Second track, the "The Life and Death of Elfi Theda" is a steady example of the primer compositional behavior of the fray, and so is the very next track on the debut. Song number two sports more of a Joe Satriani family friendly potato chips and Superbowl Weekend rock vibe, swiftly colored on by adept and playful bass work and pleasant harmonic modulations of legitimate surprise power. The chord passage that ensues gives space to the lead guitarist the album is about to showcase his improvisational skills. The climax conveys a moody-, kind of semi-depressed vibe that adds further variation.
By this time, if you are any kind of a music snob with at least a sear promise in her/him, you will be accustomed to the central rhetorics the LP builds upon. "Radical Emotions" starts out with a fanciful melodic run on gentle 4/4, and then arrives to take the form of an interesting attempt on the music of a sedated Yngwie Malmsteen and Frank Gambale. Though Malmsteen's epic vibrato and Gambale's sweep picking insanity are not invitees, the track weighs in as a fine melodic construct of tasteful variation and layered flamboyancy. The "Look, Mom! Fairies!"-part might be too much for you if you are into power lich black metal, but let me assure you that technical death metal bands OR thrash bands operate within the same niche when transmitting from this particular musical field. After the intermezzo, the build is spiced up by an even more rabid experimental tint characterized by odd time signatures reeking - "oddly" enough - Meshuggah in a rebellious, yet now-gentle character.
"Moods" is built on a very uninspired and tepid retirement home chord passage that tolls time with no mercy whatsoever, and Avishay Mizrav, though tries valiantly to set the fretboard on fire nevertheless, the flames simply cancel the invitation with such dull chords to be tolerated around them upon their theoretic arrival. But, no, intensity is far enough this time that it does not even bother to take a look towards you from distance such as this. Frankly, "Moods" is "Lesson 12 : Backing Track to Major Chord Shapes" material, and including it on the disc THEN asking me to review it is a token of valiant bravery.
"Journey To The End Of The World" strikes a fine and thrilling initial balance between the sci-fi side of Iron Maiden and progressive warfare with finely silhouetted promise in it, somewhat tarnished by Joe Satrianish-, at heart meaningless "lookwhaticando!!" fretboard-tapping-acrobatics and a middle section with a middle eastern tint to it that fails to make me submit. The climax offers some elegant nods to exotic rhythmic patterns, and the ornamentic high frequency guitars similarly do a tremendous job to make this track a standout, dimming the horrifying memory of the - frankly - wankfest solo work.
Titular delivery "Forgotten Melodies" nods to Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms", then offers ambitious promises of progressive warfare with an eloquent intro reeking "Eye of the Tiger" in character. The music exhibits a nice harmonic fabric throughout, claiming relative peace in the mid section with less rabid chord structures. This gives apt time to Avishay Mizrav to showcase how quickly and enthusiastically he can pick notes on his instrument, and, gives apt time for you to decide if you consider him to be a second time violator of good ol' wankfest territory. You will have a super-hard time convincing me of cosmic level guitar work until you alternate pick between three strings Ramboid-Minigun style á lá - alphabetic order - Michael Angelo Batio or Stochelo Rosenberg. The midsection of this song delivers some solo lines traded around between guitar and synth. The harmonic backdrop, unfortunately is as intense herein as the MIDI soundtrack of an Amiga car racing game from 1992, but the intent is clear, at least. I like the synth sound. The song wraps its fabric up by a decent and clear morose statement administered by a discontent guitar, and the ending riff especially is cool.
"Casualties of War" is a gloomy metal ballad with free spirited solo guitar rhetorics failing to notice the point from which on it overstays its welcome from time to time.
"Stormy Night" is yet another Joe Satriani nod, as this song is Avishay Mizrav's personal reply to Mr. Satriani's "Tears in the rain". But the thought itself is not from Mr. Satriani, it is from Philip K. Dick, and you should watch the Ridley Scott/Rutger Hauer rendition of the related thought-field, too.
There is one song yet on the record that which I refrain relating to, so you have something to construct your percepts totally and completely on your own without knowing my personal inputs. I'm going to wrap this review up and I will say this : I found this delivery an enjoyable one, and there is no doubt whatsoever that there is a huge amount of work in it. If you are a fan of friendly melodic progressive rock, this release is recommended for you. If you are not, nice accomplishment reaching this point in the review, and I like your mom is stockings.
Check out Avishay Mizrav's Forgotten Melodies at :
Forgotten Melodies at CD Baby
GyZ at Bandcamp.
If you want, check out my music
and / or
Buy me beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment