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As virtuoso
guitar players go there are non so prolific and renowned as George Bellas,
who time after time has put together some quite outstanding albums. Once
again Bellas has shown his true technical ability and fortitude with his
latest release 'Planetary Alignment'.
This album is
probably Bellas’s most Progressive sounding album to date, a man whose
better known for Neo-Classical work this album shows another side to this
guitarists ever growing talent, as wrote, played guitar, bass and
keyboards on the album he also produced, mixed and did the artwork for the
album so even before you hear a note this is without a doubt a George Bellas album.
By the way the
drum work is by the very capable Marco Minneman who is probably on of the
few drummers who could keep up with Bellas’s complex material.
We get things
going with ‘Color By Numbers’ and from the off you're thrown into Bellas’s
world of flamboyant solo’s and intricate timings and tempo changes, with
its soaring keyboards, every changing drum beats and that infamous
guitar style.
Bellas took the
world of Astrophysics for his inspiration not a subject usually associated
with rock music but he has taken this small molecule of an idea and blown
it into planetary proportions.
As the album
continues is sub particle path with ‘Encoded In Light’ another soaring
almost mystical piece that again highlights the varying fret work of
Bellas.
The high quality
of guitar playing is here in bucket loads, as well as some quite sublime
keys and bass renderings. As the album progresses through the likes of
‘Subatomic Particles’ with its sci-fi feel and 'Parallel Universe' and
'Overlapping Dimensions' carrying on the spaced out theme.
'Escape Victory'
is another triumph for Bellas’s imaginative and haunting style. Whereas my
favourite ‘Gravitons’ heralds a new wave of Progressive guitar playing as Bellas expands the mind with some quite extraordinary elements in the
middle C, which will simply seem impossible to us mere mortals to
reproduce.
This quite
impressive guitar album will not be to everyone’s taste as most guitar
albums have a limited market with only the hardiest of guitar players
admiring the depth and perception needed to create such an album, but the fans
of Bellas will simply love what he has created on this album. |
