THE DARK CHAPTER

Solo debut album by Michael Romeo and currently his only one, released back in 1994 along with Symphony X' first one. This one is entirely instrumental and deals with power/shred metal only with slight classical influences as well as being quite proggy. Except for the programmed drums and the keyboards on track 8 (which are played by SymX keyboardist Michael Pinnela), Michael Romeo plays all the instruments himself and shows not only that he is a great guitarist, but a steady keyboardist and bassist as well. The music is much in the style of the earlier SymX material only more shredding and less keyboards, but it's not bad, not at all.

This one is, in my opinion, much better than SymX's debut, considering it's better produced and more balanced. However, this is more for the power/shred metal or SymX fan than people who want Dream Theater or Fates Warning-ish stuff. But fans of Romeo should really get this one if they can find it! The overal album mood is pretty dark, so play it at night for the best effect.

Send comments to Bj-1 (BETA) | Report this review (#63498) | Review Permalink
Posted Saturday, January 07, 2006

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!Excuse me if I use the term of guitar masturbation to qualify stylistically this album! Only an avalanche of arpeggios and sometimes I got the feeling that Mr Romeo is trying to see if he is able to break the speed of sound with some common and uninspired compositions in the neo ... (read more)

Report this review (#258382) | Posted by Ovidiu | Tuesday, December 29, 2009 | Review Permanlink

Nice and interesting guitar album. "The Dark Chapter" provides many fantastic solos, arpeggios, e.g. "Masque of the Red Death" and also nice keyboard parts, e.g. "Noit Al Ever". During the solos you can already notice Michael Romeo's usual techniques, such as string skipping, arpeggios², ta ... (read more)

Report this review (#64980) | Posted by W.Chuck | Monday, January 16, 2006 | Review Permanlink

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