It is very clear that Fusion Guitarist, Dave Martone and Glen Drover of Megadeth are hypnotic and completely mind-blowing when it comes to having a grand old time and enjoying yourselves to perform in front of an audience who are completely are experiencing an amazing adventure, they have ever dreamed of. Both guitarists have brought the ingredients of Progressive Metal, Thrash, Jazz Fusion, Virtuoso, and Humor thrown into the Grocery bags to see which direction they would flow into and the label, Magna Carta has unleashed something special and electrifying.
The performance was recorded on September 25, 2011 at
Mississauga, Ontario for the Metalworks series which they did online in limited
locations for a worldwide webcast that was watched around the world in 63
countries and viewed by over 25,000 people which is mind-blowing. And the
performance has been finally unleashed on CD and DVD. Watching this performance, you get the
feel that you are right in the audience, completely jaw dropped, get into the
groove, and dare I say head banging to some parts of the pieces of the music
that Martone and Drover bring onto the stage.
There are two acts in the performance. The first act is Dave
Martone himself as he comes onstage as if the Olympic Torch of Guitar Virtuoso
has been given to him to light the events off with a bang from the roaring
applause from the crowd as he kicks the show off with The Goodie Squiggee Song. It
has this Jazz Rock style but with a swinging metallic twist as Martone is going
into town in the style of Steve Vai as if he had recorded this piece back in
the days of the late ‘30s to get the floors going to jump and jive.
Elsewhere, Angel Fish
has this wonderful homage to Elton John’s Funeral For a Friend as if it was
left off the sessions for Goodbye Yellow Brick Road while on Got Da Blues, Martone gives the band a
chance to share their moments of shining glory. He goes into this wonderful style of George
Benson meets Ottmar Liebert meets Django Reinhardt and going into the mind of
John McLaughlin for a laid-back beat that is at times, middle-eastern and
Brazilian atmosphere.
David Spidel goes this tribute to Jaco Pastorious and Flea
on his bass by coming up with some of the most Fusion-like licks and not to
mention slapping and popping the strings to get into the Funky groove as
drummer Gary Grace goes into this style sounds of Ginger Baker, Billy Cobham
and Bill Bruford on the drums to get the flow going as audiences go bonkers for
the two members as if it a jet engine had zoom very loud in a quick second to
get the flow going.
His take on the Charlie Daniels Band’s The Devil Went Down to Georgia with different lyrics instead of
violin, it’s a guitar competition between Johnny and the Devil himself. There’s
bits of Power Metal flowing in there as Dave growls the song before doing a
little bit of In the Hall of the Mountain King-sque line in the guitar that
sends shivers down the listener’s and crowd’s spine along with the cool vibe on
the atmospheric Dinky Pinky.
He closes the first set off with Glen Drover as a guest as
they kick into full energetic gear with a thunderous take of Joe Satriani’s Crush of Love. On this piece, they know their true love of
the guitar heroes they grew up with. And the vibrations are frenetic between
both Martone and Drover as they come up with overwhelming results.
The second act is Glen Drover’s turn to shine. In Glen’s
group, there’s Jim Gilmour on Keyboards, Paul Yee on Bass, and Chris Sutherland
on Drums. It’s more of a Progressive and Symphonic music mixed in with the
Fusion and the Metal genre to the core as he pays tribute to Frank Zappa and
Jean-Luc Ponty (which is on the DVD).
The spacey voyages on Don’t
Let The World Pass You By starting with Gilmour’s ambient keyboard
surroundings along with Yee’s smooth bass lines, Drover comes in with some
storming licks that resembles Alex Lifeson and a wonderful homage at times to
La Villa Strangiato while Gilmour goes into some swirling moog-like
surroundings that is off the wall. Opener, Frozen Dreams,
which starts the show off, begins with Jim doing homages to Keith Emerson and
Jordan Rudess as Drover creates this soaring riff before they go into
Prog-Metal town with various difficult time changes and uplifting tempos to get
the room going. Illusions of Starlight and
Colors of Infinity are both a
laid-back voyage turned into a Galactic adventure while the segue between the
quirky yet thumping take of Zappa’s Filthy
Habits and the emotional yet spiritual beauty of Ascension, shows the textures and electrical powers of Glen
Drover’s guitar work.
The closing yet entranced track, Ground Zero and the encore featuring Dave Martone to help out as
Glen sings one of Megadeth’s thrashier yet futuristic take on Symphony of Destruction, makes it a
perfect closing way to drop the curtain with a lot of heavy climatic boundaries
to get the explosions ready to hit at the right time at the exact right moment.
The DVD also features jubilant bonus tracks that Drover and Martone did along with rehearsal footage, photos, and compositions and a Jean-Luc Ponty cover that almost could
have been an extended version of the live set.
Both Dave Martone and Glen Drover are quintessential and the
performance at Metalworks is absolutely a shining yet thrilling experience that
is unleashed. Importance and a lot of hard work have been done to come upon
here and they have done one hell of a job from beginning, middle, and end.
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