Reviewed by MJBrady on 15 Oct 2003

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Guitarist Neil Rambaldi cites players like Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani & John Petrucci as a few of his more influential favorites, each of these names are familiar to the fans of modern electric guitar virtuosos. In hearing Neal's Perpetual Horizon cd, it is apparent that his aim was to incorporate the nuances from each of these players into his own blend of instrumental guitar music.

Rambaldi remains a session artist, doing both live and session work, as well as some production. This cd is his first solo attempt. The cd features all instrumental songs that range from straight rockers, ballads, to more progressive structures. He, like so many other artists have chosen to perform, or program all the instrumentation on the cd, as well as producing and engineering, except for some small keyboard parts. While I can fully understand why artists are preferring to do this (money, convenience, conflicts), there are times where one can audibly detect the music needing more diversity in the creative approach. There is no denying Neil's skills as a musician, but the lack of real drums, and the dry backup music, sort of limits the overall listening pleasure of this cd.

I hear a LOT of guitar cds, and while there is no doubt a zillion great players out there, it seems very few are taking the instrumental aspects of the guitar to new and undiscovered territories, here on Perpetual Horizon, I can hear an artist that has all of the tools, and understanding of studio techniques, but could build more upon his writing, and hopefully integrate some other musicians that can lend some contrast and depth to the musics' overall vibe.

Ten years ago, this cd would rate nicely with many of the guitar instrumental cds of that day, since then the standards have been lifted to new heights, both sonically as well as structurally. On this cd, I am hearing about 1/3 of what I would consider innovative and imaginative music, the rest sounds a little cliched, I do like Rambaldi's progressive songs the most, he indeed shows some flare for subtle complexity on a few tunes, the others are less interesting, something we have heard before.

When I hear a promising guitarist that wants to take his/her music to the next level of progressive instrumental music, I can only hope they are listening to some of todays more groundbreaking artists, some that come to mind are :Martone, 4 Front, Cyril Achard, Ron Jarzombek (Spastic Ink), Joel Hoekstra are a few that are doing more than going through the motions, they are using their skills to bring their music to life, something that can seperate them from the masses of clones out there. I hear spots of promise here from Neil Rambaldi, and I hope he can build on the best parts of this cd in the future.