Dave Martone / Glen Drover - Live at Metalworks

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.