Dragon's Cave: Elektro Motion

When I first saw the cover art for Elektro Motion, the new CD from Dragon's Cave, I immediately thought power metal. While there is nothing wrong with that, power metal this is not. Instead we have a fine hard rock album with small doses of metal here and there.

The leader of the project is Steve Angarthal, guitarist for well known Italian band Fire Trails. Angarthal's signature guitar can be found throughout Elektro Motion and let me tell you that is a good thing indeed. The man can play guitar! His playing is elegant, classy and incredibly melodic fusing elements of neo-classical, Eastern, fusion, metal and hard rock into one hell of a guitar album. His neo-classical shredding comes through crystal clear as you can hear every minute detail, every wonderful note and his melodic riffs makes this collection of songs highly memorable. His acoustic guitar playing is also a highlight throughout. On top of that his vocals are very good as he has a deep and rich mid range delivery that suits the music well, often dripping with emotion. Of course, this is a band effort and joining Angarthal are Pasko (bass, backing vocals), Larsen Premoli (keyboards, backing vocals) and Mario Giannini (drums).

The band kicks things off with the instrumental title track and Angarthal's Eastern guitar motifs, neo-classical shredding and lush keyboard sounds makes for a dramatic beginning that is highly listenable and loaded with melody. The hard rock ear candy of "Drifting On" features an ultra catchy chorus and excellent electric and acoustic guitar. The Deep Purple tinged "Time Train" is another slice of 70s flavoured hard rock and metal where organ and guitar mesh nicely together and the ambitious "At the Gates of Nowhere" with its lushly orchestrated beginning of synths and choirs proves Dragon's Cave is not your typical run of the mill hard rock band. Listen for more Eastern bent guitar passages as the entire band absolutely smokes. Other highlights include "Out There", an instrumental featuring precise guitar leads reminding me of Mark Knopfler and the acoustic ballads "Pearls Under Water" and "A Gift From a Dream", both featuring gorgeous guitar playing at its finest.

Dragon's Cave have produced an excellent album. While hard rock fans will love it, Elektro Motion should also give fans of progressive music something to sink their teeth into as the band displays fine musicianship throughout these sixteen songs. Highly recommended!

Track Listing:
1. Elektro Motion
2. Drifting On
3. Time Train
4. At the Gates of Nowhere
5. Ghosts of the Past
6. A New Beginning
7. Out of Sight
8. Floating
9. Rendez-Vous
10. Coming Home
11. Pearls Under Water
12. Out There
13. So Bad
14. Dragon's Cave
15. Sunny Sky
16. A Gift From A Dream

Added: August 9th 2010
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Band's Official Site
Hits: 2598
Language: english

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