Poland's Boguslaw Balcerak has seemingly come out of nowhere to become one of the most exciting players on the Metal scene. His neoclassical blistering style is certainly reminiscent of the great Yngwie Malmsteen, you'd have to be a fool not to make the comparison. Having said that, there's certainly room for more brilliant guitar work, and he IS brilliant, every solo shows you that.
For "Blood Of Prophets" he brought in three of the great melodic Power Metal guys out there, Mark Boals, Goran Edman and Carsten Shulz. This tell you right away of the quality of work you can expect. Balcerak handled all the guitars including bass as well as all the musical arrangements. The general theme of the music is actually quite Progressive with amazing time changes and complex structures. Fans of Stratovarius, Malmsteen, Axel Rudi Pell and other similar artists will really appreciate and enjoy the work done here.
Back to Balcerak for a moment now, he really is the star here even though the vocals are top-notch. This guy as complete command of his instrument, he's as fast as anyone out there, but still manages to blend in emotion and breath life into his solos. So many of the fast players are just fast, Balcerak is much a much more diverse player than the average Metal guitarist.
"Blood Of Prophets" is certainly one for the collection, if you appreciate musicianship at it's finest, you won't find too much better than this.
Torch – rockhardtorch@hotmail.com
