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Masi Eternal Struggle  (Lion Music, 2001)

Remember back in the early 80s, how Yngwie Malmsteen was hailed as God
by some for his lightning fast lead playing?  But he could never write
really good hard rock songs, in which to showcase his solos, and he
could never find a singer who was good enough to match his playing skill
to make a really solid band.  So Yngwie's bands and his records had dull
songs with mediocre vocals for two verses, then he'd rip some
out-of-this-world solo, but then it was back to a lame third verse. 
Hard rock fans eventually got tired of him and went back to other bands
with far less playing skill but more complete songwriting.

Alex Masi is a European neoclassical shred player from the 80s who has
led his self-named band for over 15 years and 9 CDs.  After two albums
of Bach arranged for guitar, Eternal Struggle is the first Masi
band record of original hard rock tunes since 1997's The Watcher,
and unfortunately Masi's neoclassical shred-rock suffers the same innate
weaknesses that Yngwie's did. 

The music sounds like classic European hard rock, like old UFO or
Scorpions, with plodding hard rock riffs and Masi's neo-classical
shredding everywhere - solo breaks in the middle of songs, flashy fills
during the verses, and long outro solos as the songs fade out..  The
songs run a wide range of stock hard rock types, including up-tempo
rockers like All I Want and the Foreigner cover Blue Morning
Blue Day, grinders like Lost in the City, Wheel Rolls
On, and Black Flames Allure, and of course, a sensitive
ballad, Writing on the Wall.  The brittle single coil guitar
sound also sounds just like the classic European rock like Deep Purple
that heavily influenced Yngwie, as do the raspy hard rock vocals of
singer Kyle Michaels.  The pipe organ arpeggios in All I Want add
the only original sonic flare on the record, and their sound fits
perfectly with the neoclassical vibe of Masi's music. 

Masi's command of hard rock songwriting cliches, especially grinding
riffs like Black Flames Allure and Lost in the City, is
just as solid as his command of neoclassical speed licks, but he brings
nothing original to the table in either his playing or his writing. 
Eternal Struggle feels like a tribute record or a cover band,
since this style of music and playing, at least here in America, is so
far back in the past (Lion Records is based out of Finland, so maybe
they still love this stuff there).  Masi sounds like a solid but trite
imitation from a bygone era, so Eternal Struggle is recommended
for neoclassical shred freaks only.

Reviewed by Scott Andrews [scottandrews@his.com]

More Info:

http://www.alexmasi.net/ 
 


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