Brutiful_ViXn
Reign In Metal
Zodiac :  Metal Reputation : 88
Join date : 2012-01-05
Location : Vacationing in Hell
 | |  Patrick Hemer – More Than Meets The Eye (2011) Album Review | |
Patrick Hemer – More Than Meets The Eye (2011)
Nightmare Records -- Running Time 45:20
Back in the 1980’s and early 90’s I had a huge passion for guitarists such as Tony MacAlpine, Jason Becker, Chris Impellitteri, Michael Lee Firkins, and Joe Satriani etc. I loved that neo classical style of guitar playing. I would add Yngwie Malmsteen, who wrote some great songs early on, but he never plays anything live the same as he does on CD, which has always been a letdown for me. Apart from the odd Satriani album, I’ve not really heard anything in recent years to compete with some of that early material...until now!
Enter Patrick Hemer and his 2011 album ‘More Than Meets The Eye’. One word describes this and it’s WOW! Apparently Patrick was a member of ‘Horizon’ at the beginning of the last decade but I have not heard of them, although I will now be eagerly checking out their material if this album is anything to go by. This CD kicks serious butt from the outset with opener ‘Up From The Ashes’ kicking off with 30 seconds that could easily have been on a latter day Pink Floyd album before the main riff kicks in and from then on its Progressive, Neo-Classical, Melodic Metal of the highest order. Patrick not only plays guitar but also bass, keyboards and supplies vocals (more about them later), and is joined here by ‘David Casanova’ on keyboards and drummer extraordinaire ‘Tom Wagner’ and together these nine songs are note perfect. The guitar work is out and out the best I have heard for years, this guy is seriously talented and had the album been released in the second half of the 80’s I’m almost certain it would have been huge. Add all the wizardry to songs that could have graced any Dokken, George Lynch or Mr Big etc album and you have a winner. In fact if I could bottle all the best things I love about this particular style of metal and give it a shake ‘More Than Meets The Eye’ would probably be what I poured out! My slightest of niggles is the vocals. Patrick does indeed have a great voice (reminding me in places of Joe Lynn Turner and a tiny bit of Graham Bonnet) but it seems a little buried in the mix which is a shame, it really does no harm to the album overall though. As a drummer myself, I also have to mention the precision of ‘Tom Wagner’. He’s not over complicated for the sake of it, but like the guitar, every beat seems to have been placed correctly.
If great melodic songs, with big hooks, played with huge talent is your thing then you really have to check out Patrick Hemer and ‘More Than Meets The Eye’. Why do albums this good get overlooked in favour of the ‘next big thing’!
www.patrickhemer.com/
www.facebook.com/patrickhemerofficial
Review written exclusively for Brutiful Entertainment by Rick Tilley: www.facebook.com/richard.tilley.351
| |
|
