Adrian Galysh – ‘Tone Poet’ Album Review

When SonicAbuse asked me to review a few albums, the first one that grabbed my attention was this cd. Adrian Galysh confidently clutching his custom made Brian Moore guitar. Ah, I thought, this might be full of wild riffs and solos.

 Well, it does have some of those moments, but overall it is more of a solid, workmanlike effort, which is like 2 mini cds stuck together. Tracks 1 – 5 are like a simple rock album with some good vocal performances from Mark Boals, whilst the rest of the album is instrumental, with good, solid drumming by Todd Sucherman.

As well as guitar, Galysh plays some bass and did all the keyboards and programming. Here his classical influences are very obvious throughout the cd. The tracks ‘Resurrecti’ and ‘Luminae’ are atmospheric, understated guitar solos, spoilt a little by the choral programming which frequently sounds far too synthetic. In contrast, ‘Brick By Brick’, ‘Flying’ and ‘Movie In My Mind’ are decent rock tracks, with strong vocal performances, some quite catchy riffs, tempo changes and a few good guitar solos. A low point on the disc, ‘When You fall’ is a rather dull ballad but ‘La Dolce Vita’ and ‘Epoch’ are very classical in style, quite keyboard dominated but interesting nonetheless. The Title track had some good acoustic solos and a good tempo change mid-track. ‘Echoes of El Greco’ had a Spanish style, in places, with some quick acoustic guitar solos, well played, rocking tempo changes and soloing and it’s my favourite track on the disc. I also enjoyed the varied ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ and ‘Spring’; two well-crafted tracks with tempo changes and good solos and drumming.

Overall it is a varied album that doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its cover but which contains some interesting moments nevertheless.

Album Review : Chris Greenwood