Customer Reviews

Edge of Insanity

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Putting Tony Macalpine together with Billy Sheehan put this album over the top. While other bassists such as Tony Franklin serve well as a backdrop to Macalpine's virtuoso assault on guitar and keyboard, Sheehan takes it to the next level with acrobatic bass counters. How Macalpine has never gotten more press is one of the great mysteries.....

Some people just don't "get" this CD. This is guitar playing compositional excellence. It is fast and furious, but unlike many other similar guitarits, it is NOT a "fast for fast's sake" endless repetition of scale after high-speed scale. The songs are very well written, complex, multilayered compositions.

The classical influence is obvious, and his skill is considerable. As someone that enjoys music from speed metal to pop to going to an orchestra now and then, I see this music for what it is, highly skilled songwriting played by an excellent performer. I was absorbed by this CD the moment I first heard it almost 20 years ago, it is like Beethoven on crack. The title of the CD is rather appropriate.

Especially if you've never heard Tony MacAlpine before at all, it is hard to really gauge him by short little sound samples. You won't "get" many of these songs until you listen to them a few times and let them sink in. I'll try to give you my sense of this CD: frantic, intense, cold, calculated, complex, and precise.

Mr. MacAlpine's flashy classical training and melancholy soul ride atop the heavy accompaniment of the virtuoso drumming of (believe it or not) Steve Smith (Journey) and Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth Band) for a whirlwind tour of Malmsteen-ish instumental tunes.

There is a clever and suprising use of atypical cadences and melodies (like they're not all speed metal, or even rock, for that matter).

A word on the down side: Sheehan and Smith's excellent and thunderous accompaniment is sometimes just that: excellent and thunderous, when a moment of quiet restraint might have served well.

Macalpine plays heavy and fast with lots of classical flash and writes better melodies than Malmsteen. Having Billy Sheehan on the bottom end is always a plus and who knew Steve Smith could play like this? Solid production, too. Blast it when the girlfriend is gone.

If there was one album i had to pick that should be heard by everyone i would have to choose edge of insanity. Not because it is the greatest album ever (which it very near is) but because not only have most people not been exposed to good neo-classical or shred music (which there is not very much of) but because edge of insanity is the only shred album which i would rank with the likes of bethoven or chopin. If someone asked me to name just one album that has been the most influencial in my life it would be this album. This is the album that me and my long time friends grew up listening to and falling in love with. Tony opens doors that have never been walked near and explores worlds you never imagined. BUY BUY BUY!

I've had this album for over twenty years, and it's still one of my favorates. For any "seasoned" guitar player that knows about playing with soul, as well as technique, this is album is a must have. "Empire In the Sky" still puts a lump in my throat.

This album contains the masterful Billy Sheehan on Bass and Steve Smith on drums (from Mr. Big and Journey respectfully)

If you are a guitar fan, this is for you

I feel this album is set apart from so much of the other somewhat stale (to me) whizzy-whizzy guitar playing from the 80's, Satriani, Vai, et al. Macalpine is a very talented songwriter who sounds like he's making a Bach-type classical song for modern times with distortion and fast drums, very interesting songs. Throw into the mix that he's a ridiculously good musician, and the album is killer.

This album was my introduction to Macalpine's work, and I remember very well my first thought on him- Oh, my Holy God, who is this guy??? Why do you create people that inspire and humilliate us normal humans, in first place??? Well, Tony, Macalpine is such a guy, an incrediblely talented musician, period. They are many excellent guitar players out there, but Tony is unique, his technique is flawless, his speed and repertoire simply amazing. Get this album now and find out what I am taking about.

I have many records by Tony Macalpine and whenever I feel like listening to some killer guitar I usually stick this album in the sterio. What is amazing about this guy is that he can play classical piano to a high degree as well as the guitar. If anybody recently watched the Live at Astori, London DVD by Steve Vai, Mr Macalpine is in the band and he make an excellent contribution. My only critism about Tony Macalpine's style on the guitar is that I find a lot of his music flows kind of robotically and whilst you can cram speed in at any time, holding a note and bending a note compliments both. I hope though from a fans view, that he continues to work with Vai.