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RECORDING INFORMATION |
LMC194 - EAN 6419922001943
Unstable Balance was entirely, recorded, produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Massimo Izzizzari.
All songs written by Massimo Izzizzari
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| COMMENTS & REVIEWS |
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MJBrady
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Published on: 15 Jan 2007
Unstable Balance is my first introduction to this Italian guitarist, and in reading his biography, Massimo makes it clear that he is a fusion guitarist, as opposed to the league of shredders out there today. After listening to this cd, I would say he is somewhere in between, he cites the likes of Frank Gambale,Scott Henderson, Greg Howe, Pat Metheny to name a few, as artists that he is influenced by. Of all the players on that short list, I'd liken Massimo Izzizzari's guitar playing to that of Greg Howe. At times I even wonder if it's not actually Howe himself, all the nuances of Greg's playing seem to be right there, the tone, the techniques, feel and bluesy shred lines. Another Italian player came to mind as I listened along, Alessandro Benvenuti who has also adopted a very similar approach.
One thing that I really enjoy about the cd, is that Izzizzari takes yet another similar approach to songwriting that Mr. Howe does, and that is to create challenging music to go along with his ferocious soloing skills, so you are not merely treated to a mindless excercise in guitar noodling as is ofter the case, but more so, the backdrop of music lends a nice listenable experience in it's own right. After a few songs, we are sure of one thing, that Massimo Izzizzari can play. In fact, it wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing to back off a few of the leads and leave a little more space for the songs themselves.
So here we are in the year 2007, and virtuoso guitar cds are still being made some twenty years after the surge of Yngwie cloning experiments began, I have now witnessed the fact that no guitarist is original enough to not be copied or duplicated, Holdsworth has his followers, Yngwie has his, and perhaps the most, Beck the same, Steve Morse has a few, John Petrucci has undeniably influenced a new generation, and the list goes on, with what I am hearing from Massimo Izzizzari, Greg Howe now has a few players that hold his style in high regard, as this cd really will convince fans of Howe that his chops and feel are not beyond attainable
I am not trying to knock this cd whatsoever, as I have been and will always like Howe's playing, and Massimo doesn't intend to completely mimic everything that is Greg Howe, he shows enough influences otherwise to stand well on his own, I do hope to hear more from this musician in the future, my only suggestion is to stay true to his own voice, especially considering the compositional approach, keep things progressing, let the writing define you, not the soloing, that is ultimately what sets the great ones apart from the followers.
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| TRACKS |
CREDITS
(click to view performer credits) |
PROGGNOSIS SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
(click to view Release Page) |
- Unstable Balance
- Access Denied
- Wordgame
- Television Man
- Freeze Frame
- The Alchemist
- Violation Of Privacy
- Take It Or Leave It
- The Enchanted Forest
- Teresa
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