WAR AND PEACE, EPISODE VII

The second album from this Russian group, although here there seems to be more musicians involved (two bassists, two keyboardists). Nonetheless each track only features a five-piece of saxophone / guitar / drums / bass / keyboards. Like the debut this is all instrumental and generally speaking in a funky fusion vein. Compared to the last album this one seems more rockin'. The album opens with an acoustic guitar playing a chord progression very similar to the one in the Skid Row power ballad "I Remember You." "Morning In The Steppe" proceeds to have a sax solo over the guitar. "Dance Of Stormtroopers" starts out funky and fusion-y with slightly spacey sounding synths. The melody the sax reprises here and there is nice. Alternating sax and synth solos and a bass solo towards the end.

"Psycho" begins easy going and jazzy. The pace picks up with some sax/guitar unison runs. Those parts alternate with some great drumming and guitar playing near the end. "Pedlars" opens with military snare rolls and a 'happy' sounding sax. Playful organ joins in. Love the mix of sax and guitar after 2 minutes. Turns into a fusion jam with a drum solo. "Confession Of Samovar" has a nice syncopated beat with some great echo-y electric piano. Later on some unison guitar/sax work. Shredding guitar solo over halfway. "Steel Zeppelins For The First Cavalry Army" sounds at first like Aerosmith meets Dream Theater until the sax and organ show up. Gets very trad jazz sounding at times. Interesting organ solo later on.

"PIN-Code" is a highlight. It begins as hard fusion with some sax/guitar unison playing. Mellows out a bit with some slightly spacey synth soloing. More trad jazz sounding before it goes back to the hard fusion. This track features some great sounding synth and a killer guitar solo. "Chingachgook Vs. Darth Vader" starts out soulful and funky. The pace picks up with some interplay between sax and synth, the synth having a weird sound. Nice melodies on sax and guitar. Then instead of sax, organ and weird synth interplay. Features solos for sax, organ, guitar and bass. Overall an improvement over the debut. A nice album that will appeal to fans of the more rockin' and funky elements of modern fusion. You can purchase both albums on M-Artel's Bandcamp. I will give this 4 stars.