|
With some 200
album bearing the name of John Macaluso on the credits, quite a feat in
itself with stints with ARK to Malmsteen, now Macaluso has finally got his
name on the cover with his new project John Macaluso & Union Radio.
As one of the
most respected drummers around he has taken this new project by the horns
and with a varied list of musicians and vocalists, this new album 'The
Radio Waves Goodbye' is all about the man and his music, and covers a vast
spectrum of subject matter from the religious and spiritual, to the more
day to day feelings we all have including anger, joy, fulfilment and
emptiness to name but a few.
So now on to
'The Radio Waves Goodbye' itself, the album opens up with ‘Soul In Your
Mind’ a thumping opener that paves the way for the rest of the album with
the vocals of Dream Theater’s James LaBrie adding that extra dark element
to the track, with the resounding keyboard skills of non other than
Vitalij Kuprij bringing the whole thing an atmospheric almost progressive
edge all enveloped around Macaluso’s drum skills, it's a great way to open
up the album.
The same
atmospheric keyboards skills of Kuprij are again present on ‘Mother
Illusion’, but this time we se a change on the vocal front with
Masterplan’s Mike DiMeo taking over the mike for this very different track
as it mixes a hard rock vocal sound with progressive keys and drums to
great effect.
This is where
the promo copy differs from the release copy of the album as the track
listing vary on the promo copy of the album so I will review the tracks as
they come, so back to the album.
We once again
see a change on the vocal front for the next track ‘The Prayer Pill’ with
ARK frontman Adrian Holtz taking over the mantle of vocalist for yet
another change in direction for the album. This more haunting
approach lets Macaluso take somewhat of a back seat on this track, with
the keyboards and bass driving the track along with some quite sublime
guitar moments supplied by Alex Rastopkin.
Next up is the
quite mood ridden ‘Dissolved’ with Holtz once again laying down the vocals
on this power mix tempo filled track, this time with the keyboards being
provide by Dimuti and the flyaway guitars courtesy of Larry Meyer.
Mike DiMeo once
again lends his power vocals to the next track ‘Gates To Bridges’, a
switch again to a more harder sound than brings out the best in DiMeo’s
vocals and with the Macaluso hammering out the back beat and the immense
guitar talent that is Chris Caffery lending his skills to the track, this
is one of my favourite tracks off the album.
Holtz again
takes up vocal duties for another mesmerizing stint at the mike for this
very Pink Floyd style outing. The next track ‘T-34’ does away with
the vocalist altogether, but with Macaluso and Kuprij once again joining
forces you know that words are going to come off second best to the
musicianship of these two great friends, and you're not wrong, this is
just a superb piece of musical fortitude that has to be heard to be
believed.
The next track
is where Macaluso real comes into his own on the skinfest that is
‘Pretzel’. This is one for all the drummers out there or anyone who
has stood around and admired the likes of Aldridge, Lee, Powell, Macaluso,
Terrana and the rest of the mighty drummers who show off their skills with
drum solo’s in the live arena, god bless you one and all.
Yet again we see
another vocalist come into the fray this time Don Chaffin who brings his
very distinctive vocals to this hard rock masterpiece, with Larry Meyer
once again laying down the riffs both on bass and guitar as well as Jack
Frost.
Things take a
definite change in direction as the album brings in a little swing into
the mix on the totally outrageous ‘The Six Foot Under Happy Man’, then
it's back to the rock with another of my favourite tracks off the album
the quite superb ‘Things You Should Know’. A mix of progressive
elements of both keyboards and vocals intertwined with a heady bass back
beat and the acoustic guitars a quite eclectic mix that works well.
The album closes
with ‘Away With Words’, a semi instrumental with the only vocals being a
spoken piece by Macaluso himself. This haunting rendition rounds off
a quite unique and incomparable release and one worthy of the Macaluso
name. |
