Al Di Meola: Land Of The Midnight Sun (Vinyl Review)

Released: October 25th, 1976

Reviewed: July 29th, 2011

Record Label: Columbia


My rating: 10/10

Track Listing:

1. The Wizard

2. Land Of The Midnight Sun

3. Sarabande From Violin Sonata In B Minor

4. Love Theme From Pictures Of The Sea

5. Suite Golden Dawn:

    Morning Fire

    Calmer Of The Tempests

    From Ocean To The Clouds

6. Short Tales Of The Black Forest

Al Di Meola is undoubtedly a legendary musician, and despite the fact that I have devoted the best part of the last seven years of my life listening to heavy metal, I often came across his name, hearing and reading about how great and influential he has been, not only to jazz musicians but to musicians across the board. And when Glen Drover included a great rendition of Al Di Meola's "Egyptian Danza" in his solo debut "Metalusion" this year, it only succeeded in further piquing my interest. Other than that cover, I had honestly never heard his music. But now that I've decided to delve into the wonderful world of jazz, the first artist I'm laying focus on is none other than Di Meola. I wanted to start right from the beginning, so I paid a visit to Amoeba yesterday to pick up his debut album on vinyl. There was a sense of excitement and anticipation in me as I held that huge piece of artwork, took out the vinyl, placed it on my turntable and started listening to it.

"The Wizard" gives the album a very Latin start. Di Meola's guitar, synth and percussion combine together to create insane harmonies, as the song makes a journey through multiple tempo shifts. The tune is nothing short of mind-blowing, and makes a long-lasting impact on the listener's mind straightaway. The sheer range of Di Meola's musical abilities is quite evident even in these mere 6 and a half minutes. The title song keeps a similar style going, but in the process it provides yet more delightful musical passages that vary from each other but are brilliantly arranged together to somehow make the tune sound like a cohesive unit. The bass sound is also quite a lot more prominent in this one as compared to the opening track. The song is over 9 minutes long, but I have come across countless number of songs that are of equal or longer duration, and don't even come close to being as musically rich as this one.

A short acoustic guitar piece titled "Sarabande From Violin Sonata In B Minor" comes next. There is nothing quite as mentally liberating as the pristine sound of an acoustic guitar, and when it's being played by someone like Di Meola, it's even better. So needless to say, I'm glad that the album includes an acoustic guitar piece by itself. This is followed by another soft little piece of music titled "Love Theme From Pictures Of The Sea". Besides the sounds of the acoustic guitar, electric guitar and traces of percussion and synth, for the first and only time on the album you'll hear vocals.

Side B has just two tracks, the first being a three-part opus titled "Suite Golden Dawn". I would say the titles of the three parts, "Morning Fire", "Calmer Of The Tempests" and "From Ocean To The Clouds" are completely justified as the music creates images that go perfectly with their respective titles. The tune moves beautifully from part to part as they blend very smoothly into each other. Di Meola and his posse of musicians offer a whole plethora of music, creating 10 minutes that can truly be savored. The album comes to a perfect ending, with veteran musician Chick Corea joining in with a composition of his own, titled "Short Tales Of The Black Forest". Not only did he write the complete song, but also played the piano and marimba on it, making it quite a unique track that stands on its own when compared to the rest of the album.

Overall, this album is every bit as great as I had expected it to be, and then some. From this it's pretty clear that the brilliance of Al Di Meola was there for everyone to see, even at such an early stage of his career, and I can imagine how this album must have provided the ideal launching pad for the rest of his career, inspiring Di Meola to keep creating music that in turn became a huge inspiration for others who were fortunate enough to be exposed to this piece of music when it was actually first released, exactly nine years before I was born.

Interview with Glen Drover (Audio)

Interview with Glen Drover by Metalassault on Mixcloud

I did this interview with Glen Drover to talk in detail about his solo debut "Metalusion". Listen to the 15-minute chat above.

Interview with Alex Skolnick (Video)

This is an interview most Metal Assault followers must have seen already, but I'm posting it here because I feel it ties in appropriately with my album review. Watch the 3-minute chat if you haven't already.

Interview with Evan Brewer (Video)

I got to do a brief interview with Evan Brewer at the Key Club in Hollywood CA just a few weeks back, on July 10th, to talk about his solo album "Alone" and the tour with Animals As Leaders. Watch the 5-minute chat above. Thanks to Amanda G Hernandez for filming it.

Alex Skolnick performing at Heritage Guitars booth at NAMM 2011 (Video)

Here's another video I took of Alex Skolnick at NAMM 2011, this time at the Heritage guitars booth as he demonstrates some incredible slap-guitar techniques. This is one video I am more than a 100 per cent sure you will enjoy!

Alex Skolnick's AmpKit jazz guitar demo at NAMM 2011 (Video)

This is a video I took at this year's NAMM convention at the Anaheim Convention Center on January 12th, as Alex Skolnick from Testament/Alex Skolnick Trio demonstrates how a guitarist can get the best jazz sound from the AmpKit guitar app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Glen Drover: Metalusion (Album Review)

Released: April 5th, 2011 
Reviewed: April 4th, 2011
Modified: July 28th, 2011
Record Label: Magna Carta 


My Rating: 9.5/10

Glen Drover is better known to the metal community as the former member of King Diamond and Megadeth, and to a lesser extent as a member of Canadian power thrash metal band Eidolon which he formed with brother Shawn. And this year with the help of some illustrious names in the industry, he unleashed his solo debut "Metalusion", and as the name suggests, it's a combination of metal and jazz fusion.


Five original tunes and five covers make up the 10-track album. The first of the original compositions is the album opener "Ground Zero", featuring Chris Poland of Megadeth and OHM fame along with Vinnie Moore from UFO. It's an immensely delightful track that nicely sets the tone for the rest of the album. It has quite a strong progressive jazzy feel to it, and with the presence of three jazz connoisseurs in Drover, Poland and Moore, I expected nothing less. Even though it is largely a jazz-speed bonanza, this song has a sufficiently prominent thrash element that should please fans of Megadeth's Poland-era albums. It actually has something for metal fans of all kind, with the guitar harmonies giving it a traditional metal touch as well. "Frozen Dream" is next, and features Steve Smyth from Forbidden. Another excellently composed track, this is highly enjoyable from start to finish, and what stands out here as much as the guitars obviously is Jim Gilmour's contribution on the keyboards which creates a musical trinity that's similar to that of track 1. Paul Yee's bass and Chris Sutherand's drums also add a lot of punch to this tune, thus proving that Metalusion is after all a band effort and not merely a solo album.


The next original track is "Colors Of Infinity" which does not feature any guests and is composed by the Glen Drover band on its own. This being the debut album, the jury would be very much out on Glen's abilities as a composer and band leader, and after listening to this song no one would be left disappointed or dissatisfied, as the incredibly pristine guitar sound that's the focal point of this beautifully powerful tune rings through the listener's grateful ears. "Illusions Of Starlight" comes across as a brilliant follow-up. It offers much of the same guitar goodness but in a slightly more upbeat and up-tempo manner as compared to its predecessor. The last of the original tracks "Ascension" comes in at number 8 in the track listing, another slow, mesmerizingly beautiful piece of music that highlights the genius of Glen Drover.


Other than these, the album includes five cover tunes that pay tribute to Glen's jazz heroes, namely Frank Zappa, Jean-Luc Ponty and Al DiMeola. While doing justice to the original versions of these songs, Glen has certainly given a more 'metal' twist to them, making it more suitable for metal fans. One of the JL Ponty covers features Opeth's Frederik Akesson as guest guitarist while the other boasts of contribution by Nevermore's Jeff Loomis, both musicians giving a lot of oomph to the already powerful music. I'm sufficiently glad listening to how Glen combines with these amazing guest musicians, but given the style and magnitude of this stellar effort, I'm only surprised that it doesn't feature the likes of Alex Skolnick and Devin Townsend. Food for thought for the next album may be?


Overall, this album is more of the kind that progressive rock fans and connoisseurs of virtuosic guitar would appreciate more than your average Megadeth fan would. The fact that it's an instrumental album gives complete opportunity for Glen Drover to present himself in a way he has never been able to do in any of his previous bands. If you previously didn't think much of Glen's abilities as a guitar player and composer, you're in for a pleasant shock.


Featuring some of the most wonderful virtuosic guitar you would have heard in a long time, this is a blissful hour of music which everyone should treat themselves to. To sum it up in one word, I would just say, "Wow!!"

Track Listing:
1. Ground Zero [Special Guests Chris Poland and Vinnie Moore]
2. Frozen Dream [Special Guest Steve Smyth]
3. Egyptian Danza [Al DiMeola Cover]
4. Colors Of Infinity
5. Illusions Of Starlight
6. Don't Let The World Pass You By [Jean-Luc Ponty Cover, Special Guest Fredrik Akesson]
7. Mirage [Jean-Luc Ponty Cover, Special Guest Jeff Loomis]
8. Ascension
9. The Purple Lagoon [Frank Zappa Cover]
10. Filthy Habits [Frank Zappa Cover]