Customer Reviews

Liberty Manifesto

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4 star:		(1)
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Wow, it rocks! Excellent musical effort! Rik Emmett and Mike Shotton are in top form with this new group/collaboration they've formed. If you loved Rik's song writing, singing and guitar playing in his days with Triumph up through the Thunder Seven album, I think it's highly likely you'll love this too. He's got the soulful singing with that unique voice of his and excellent guitar playing going on that makes this effort familiar and yet new and distinctive at the same time!

Ever since the demise of the version of Triumph involving Rik Emmett (the only "real" version of the group there has been), he has maintained a musical presence in his home country of Canada with various solo and "side projects". However, that musical presence has never seemed to find its way back into the "mainstream". After purchasing Liberty Manifesto, all I can say is, "You don't know what you are missing!". This album is really good. A pleasure from end to end.

If you are a fan of any of Triumph's albums for Allied Forces through the Sport of Kings, you absolutely must own this CD. It is basically most everything good about Triumph through their heyday while being more musically and lyrically consistant from beginning to end (a common complaint about most Triumph albums).

This album rocks on several cuts, including Edge of Your Mind, Midnight Black & Blue, and Rise. Along the way, you still get the powerful rock anthems that Triumph was always best at. Liberty is a fantastic song in the same vein as songs like Fight the Good Fight or Never Surrender.

The other common complaint with Triumph albums was the spotty/inconsistent production each album seemed to struggle with. There is none of that here. This album sounds full, strong, and current throughout.

Rik seems to have lost none of his masterful touch with the guitar over the years. More amazing to me is how much his voice has kept its qualities through the passage of 20+ years.

There is even alittle bit of Rik's softer side on this album. Moving Day is at first somewhat quirky, as the title might lead you to think. However, this song only takes 20-30 seconds to grow on you and for you to realize that, inspite of the title, it is quite a good song.

Finally, it would not be a Rik Emmitt album with out the guitar-centered instrumentals. There are two on this. Both are a delight with Headstream being the more classicaly based piece and Transmutation being an agressive rock piece. Both are improvements versus the normal Triumph studio instrumental fair.

For anyone longing for a return of the best of Triumph, this may be as close as we ever get. In fact, this album may be even better, as a whole, then any of those ever got. There are even a couple of songs on this album that approach the caliber of Fight the Good Fight or Hold On.

If you are just looking for a good example of how melodic rock can be done in the 21st century, this album will do quite nicely as well. This is a no loose album.

This CD is filled with well written, arranged, and performed songs in "classic", melodic rock style. If you liked Triumph songs like "Fight the Good Fight" and "Lay it on the Line," then you will probably like the music on this CD quite a bit.

Musically most of the songs rock pretty hard. "Edge of Your Mind" has progressive rock feel that really works. "Midnight Black and Blue" is a bit more primial. "River Runs Deep" would have gotten a lot of radio play back in the 80's with its beautifully and powerfully arranged guitars. "Addicted" and "Rise" just rock. There is also the variety that one would expect from a Rik Emmett project. There's a lovely little classical guitar piece, "Headstream," that essentially is an intro to "River." "Moving Day," is a softer, more reflective song about endings and new beginnings. The background vocals are really great. Mike Shotton is responsible for a lot of those and the guy can sing. Rik sings all the lead vocals. His voice is still strong, but he is working harder than when he was younger to hit those high notes.

Lyrically this CD is really strong too. It is written from the point of view of two guys (Emmett and Shotton) who are older now than when they were playing arena rock back in the 80's. The age gives perspective that a younger person doesn't have, and that perspective adds meat the lyrical themes. Songs like "River Runs Deep" that look back the choices that we made in our youth and the effect of those choices on our kids (admittedly in a loose, somewhat metaphorical kind of way) are not the kind of song a 25 year old would write. For me that's good because I'm older too and while I still love the style of music, I enjoy hearing lyrics that speak to my feelings and emotions as a guy in his 40s.

Overall it's really a great CD with several especially strong spots. IMO it's better than even the strongest Triumph CD's like "Allied Forces" or "Just a Game" because there are no weak songs like "American Girls (JaG)," or "Fool for Your Love (AF)." (Sorry Gil - just not my cup of tea).

I've been a big Rik Emmett fan since the mid 80's and have been staggered by someone who can play guitar better that Jimmy Page and sing better than Robert Plant. Triumph's best songs were always Rik's and his compositions had intelligent lyrics and great musical progression.

His solo albums are a mix of jazz, rock, blues, classical acoustic guitar and melodic instrumentals. Each is very different, but all are at the pinnacle of musicianship.

In Liberty Manifesto he returns to the harder riff based rock of the Triumph Thunder 7 era.

Like all good albums it takes a few listens to appreciate the song compositions. Some songs like 'Find your way' hook you first time, and others like 'Liberty' take a few listens to appreciate the overdubbing of several guitar layers. The instrumental 'Headstream' is simply brilliant.

The drumming contribution from Mike Shotton is frantic and drives hard the riffs. Overall the album seems to be a collection of different styles of rif based rock that emulates some of Rik's influences. You can hear a Yes style to Liberty, a Jimmy Pagish Code 9, a Journish Find Your Way, Boston like River Runs deep etc. I'm not sure if this is what Rik intended, but each song is quite different (which is refreshing in this day and age).

Give this album plenty of listens very loud and marvel at Rik's incredible guitar skills. If you want to hear Rik's blues influence try his Raw Quartet album. For the best example of Rik's quitar work get Triumph's Thunder 7 album and listen to Little Boy Blues.