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Dave Martone / Glen Drover: Live at Metalworks

Metalworks is a world-famous recording studio in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Live at Metalworks was recorded there and was streamed live to a world-wide audience in September 2011. The Magna Carta Records website indicates that over 25,000 viewed this performance!

My experience with instrumental guitar rock began with Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson and Steve Vai. My recent experience includes Animals as Leaders' Tosin Abasi and Chimp Spanner's Paul Ortiz. Live at Metalworks is more in line with the guitarists of the former. Dave Martone's set opens with "The Goodie Squiggee Song" which has some serious Satriani-isms, including solid melodies, smooth chord action, interesting tempo changes and some cool harmonic trickery. The band behind Martone is solid as a rock and propels this track along. "Bossa Dorado" exhibits guitar fireworks and "Angel Fish" has a nice groovy pace reminiscent again of Satriani but the solo is quite a display of originality. File track 4 in the "fun to hear" batch; it must have been fun to watch. "Got da Blues" is a lengthy jam which showcases all members of Martone's band. Something power and progressive metal this way comes with "Dinky Pinky;" it's a must-hear. A Satch original rounds out this set and includes special guest Glen Drover. There are more notes being played than I can identify; this is another great performance.

Glen Drover (Megadeth/Testament) plays with a little less energy than Martone but no less talent. "Illusions of Starlight" and "Colors of Infinity" lean more toward melodic metal than Satch boogie. Zappa's "Filthy Habits" is a nice mid-set surprise and keeps the progressive metal flavor flowing. The keyboard patches used can be distracting; they aren't bad but sound very low-budget. The melody in "Ascension" is uplifting and flowing. The guitar and keyboard solo trade-offs are a bonus. "Ground Zero" is rhythmically adventurous and highly syncopated making it another must-hear of Live at Metalworks.

I am partial to Dave Martone's tracks as I can feel his energy transferred through this recording. Glen Drover's tunes are composed and performed very well but don't quite have the energy for me. If you are a fan of the aforementioned six-string slingers than these intimate-sounding live sets from Martone and Drover are a great listen.


Track Listing
Dave Martone
1. The Goodie Squiggee Song
2. Bossa Dorado
3. Angel Fish
4. The Devil Went Down to Georgia
5. Got da Blues
6. Dinky Pinky
7. Crush of Love
Glen Drover
8. Frozen Dream
9. Illusions of Starlight
10. Colors of Infinity
11. Filthy Habits
12. Ascension
13. Ground Zero
14. Symphony of Destruction

Added: April 24th 2014
Reviewer: Ryan Good
Score:
Related Link: Magna Carta Records
Hits: 2420
Language: english

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Dave Martone / Glen Drover: Live at Metalworks
Posted by Michael Popke, SoT Staff Writer on 2014-04-24 16:59:59
My Score:

Record labels are figuring out that they need to provide an incentive for listeners to purchase physical product these days. Which is why Magna Carta, one of the early shining lights for American progressive rock, no doubt provides substantial bang for the guitar aficionado's buck with this live CD/DVD set. Recorded live at Metalworks studio in Ontario in front of an appreciative crowd (and originally live-streamed to 25,000 viewers in more than 60 countries), this performance opens with a belch, which is greeted with audible laughter. From there, Canadian guitar hero Dave Martone plows through seven solid axe-slinging cuts — including a vocal version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" played at hyper speed.

Next, Glen Drover takes the stage with a band that features Saga keyboardist Jim Gilmour for a seven-song set highlighted by Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction — no surprise given that he was a member of that band between 2004 and 2008. But considering Drover's pedigree (which also includes Queensryche, Testament and King Diamond), it's a little disappointing he chose to play a Frank Zappa cover.

Drover and Martone join each other onstage for "Symphony of Destruction" and Joe Satriani's "Crush of Love" (the most melodic song of the night), and the DVD version includes additional songs and bonus backstage footage. What more could guitar freaks want? Nicely done, Magna Carta…




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