Customer Reviews

The Maze

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once upon a time I was a young guitarist and all around music lover. I spent all my time listening to every hot player and style I could get my hands on from the way-ahead-of-its-time swing of Django Reinhardt to the extraordinary classical riffs of Manuel Barrueco to the unbelievable jazz-rock fusion and acoustic soul music of John McLaughlin. 20 years later, after dedicating my life to the cold hard reality of earning a living, my appetite for music has welled up again and I so I had to get back into the game. My somewhat more comtemporary friends gave me the "A" list of guitarists of more recent vintage and Mr. Moore's name came up more than a few times. So I started with the highly touted "Maze" and ... well ... how should I say this ... uh ... how about ... Wow! I really like the sounds coming out of this CD. I'm still working my way through the list (Macalpine, Malmsteen, Imepellitteri, etc) and I like a lot of the sounds I have heard, but this CD really stands out so far. Vinnie Moore has just done a great job of blending the rapid fire technique of the Malmsteen lightning-riff era with some solid composition. This CD is an absolute pleasure to listen to as both a musician and a music lover. I particularly like the interesting transitions and contrasts in style of "The Maze" and the acoustic sweetness of "Never Been to Barcelona". Whether you are an old timer coming back to the fold, a newcomer looking for some guitar skills worth imitating, or simply an aficionado looking for some solid jazz-funk-rock flavored instrumental tunes to keep your spirits up while you are on the freeway or hunkered over your keyboard, I heartily recommend this album.

Simple put, an all around, astonishing, amazing instrumental album. I'm not a big listener of all out guitar albums, really Vinnie Moore and Steve Morse are the only one's i can withstand, all others are just show-offs. But Moore has technique, charisma, and a knack for killer songs with out all the faster than lightning fingerwork. Yeah, faster is good, but make some sense of the songs. Vinnie's finest since Mind's Eye, and good support from fellow shredder and labelmate Tony MacAlpine on keyboards. A must own for all rock lovers

Well, what can I say?? I have at least 30 CDs only of the instrumental guitar 'shredfest' neo-classical variety. The Maze is definitely Vinnie's best work to date (after Mind's Eye, another masterpiece album). What I found great was that, the guy focusses more on composition than just fast playing. Cool melodies, nice time shifts, fast playing, slow playing, he's got everything on this CD. The great thing about this CD is that u'll never get bored of this stuff. Vinnie doesn't go overboard, unlike Mind's Eye (which is a GREAT album, but sometimes you feel a human shouldn't play SOO fast!). The songs flow smoothly, one into the other, structuring the album very well. In all, a GEM of an album - I recommend this not only to fans of instrumental music, but to all people with a good taste of music and an inherent aversion to MTV!

I had read about Vinnie Moore in various guitar magazines but had never heard him on the radio (or at all) until I saw him open for Michael Schenker at the House Of Blues in LA. HE WAS AWESOME!! The tour was supporting this album so I went out and picked it up soon afterwards. I now have all of his albums and almost all of his guest appearances/ one off recordings.

The CD is flat out awesome.... I don't own any of vinnie moore's other work, so forgive the fact that i can base a comparrison to past works...

Vinnie Moore is a technical player... he seems to seem technicallity over speed, which is great - he showcases a great ability to be able to play in all sorts of time signatures.

The songs on this CD are all written extremely tastefuly.... He doesn't JUST shred isn't overwhelmingly repetative which makes this CD more that solid...

Some of the licks in this CD sound like flowers opening and blooming....

The music of this CD makes me recall different parts of my life and paints emotions into my blood. Any CD that can do that deserves 5 stars.

A+++++

Vinnie Moore will blow your mind! Better than Vai and equal to Satriani, Vinnie will rock you and have you spellbound. You will say "did he really just play that" or "how in the world..." or "what the...." Great shredding and highly recommend. MAD

3 1/2

I was not thrilled to say the least with Moore's earlier "Meltdown"- despite plenty of technical proficiency, most of the songs seemed to lack memorable substance to frame all the darting around on the fretboard. 99's Maze is a solid improvement from that period, injecting a ton more melody and meaning into these ten jams. While it is not completely free from the shackles of generic riffage, for a strict solo-guitar rock disc it is quite compositionally deep, with the potential to satisfy demographics beyond immediate shred-heads.

It warms the heart to see a great musician produce his best work well into his career. This album is truly a gem, even amoung Vinnie Moore albums. The songs differ from each other in feel, influence, tempo, etc. So for example there are flamenco influenced cuts, a U2 like tune with 10 times the musicality of any real U2 song, rock type cuts, guitar ballads, etc. The lines are all exceptionally well constructed yet unexpected. Of great importance is that, with this album, I see very little if any evidence of Vinnie letting his fingers play (rather than his head) -- which is an all too common downfall of virtuos musicians and I felt of Moore's earlier work. About the only criticism one can make is that his background cord progressions are pretty uninteresting. But he somehow always turns this uninspiring material into wonderful melodies through his leads and one is so captivated by the lead work that no attention is paid to the cord background anyway. This is an exceptional album from an exceptional artist, and rivals the best Steve Morse for pure guitar driven muscial joy.

I am a big fan of Neo-Classical Fusion and Vinnie Moore, and have been since the late '80's. But only a fan of his first two albums, "Mind's Eye" and "Time Odyssey". Both albums feature highly technical, yet melodic, memorable, and positive music. The songs on these two albums exhibit the structure, tone, and psychological "wholeness" of good classical music. I can imagine a symphony adapting his scores, and vice versa. He is a violin virtuoso who happens to play a guitar instead. His music is not classical in the strict sense, but the thought behind the music is the same.
However, his albums after Time Odyssey strayed from this position into more harsh, mindless, unsettling area. I have not had much interest in these.
Maze has been touted as Vinnie's return to his classical roots, and it is, but not completely. In Maze I see a reflection of the former Vinnie, albeit a hazy one. The melodies are a bit choppy and forced, the structure is not symmetric or fluid, and there is a lot of unresolved tension. Never Been to Barcellona is perhaps an exception, but it is a spanish guitar tune, so it is an exception to the genre as well. While being highly technical, it is darker and not as mature and polished as Min'd Eye. It's as if Vinnie was expressing some inner frustration or conflict that has yet to be resolved.
I have always found that (with extremely rare exceptions) an artist's first few albums are always the best. Perhaps this is because they have their whole life to develop and refine the music for their first album or two. But than after the initial success, they are under pressure to produce new material in a very short time span, and so subsequent material is not as good as the first.
I listen to Maze only occasionally. I still listen to Mind's Eye almost every week.

After releasing a poor cd, Moore releases "The Maze" with collaborations from the Monsters Tony Macalpine on the keys, Shane Galaas on drums, and super bassist Dave Larue. Returning to the neo-classical genre, Moore delivers a cd full of memorable songs. His interplay with Macalpine is superb, reminiscent of his Mind's Eye cd. I higly reccomend this album.