As we start to wind up our brief excursion into the metal of Spain, I'd like to change tack completely and go in a totally different direction. David Valdes began playing guitar at the tender age of thirteen, found he liked metal best and joined some bands of whom you nor I has ever heard. He then got into the neoclassical guitar of Yngwie Malmsteen, and through the virtuoso guitarist discovered a love for classical music, which he has imbued his own output with. All his compositions are instrumental, so no problem with trying to decipher lyrics, though as I have already pointed out many times reviewing an instrumental album is a lot harder than writing about one with vocals.
I had wanted to take his latest effort, 2013's “World i obscure”, but Spotify only have one of his albums --- to be honest, I'm surprised they even had one! --- and so this is the one I'm going with.
Imhotep --- David Valdes --- 2006 (Heavencross)
Nice keyboard opening to “Beyond the universe”, then it kicks up on a heavy guitar with very much metal credentials, driving the piece along nicely. Some nice runs and solos, with percussion provided by Ferren Roch, fretwork acquires a touch of Arabic style in the last minute, and we move on into “Run up the melody”, where a real rippling solo takes the tune, much faster and more in the style of power metal here as Valdes lets himself go and Roch thunders along behind the drumkit. Things slow down in the middle with a pretty expressive piece of playing, double or triple-tracked guitars creating quite a wall of sound. “Return to the shadows” rocks everything along nicely, with a sort of dark growling guitar sound allied to a wailing keyboard. This man can certainly play! Touches of progressive metal about this, nice lush keyboard and acoustic guitar melding in the last minute with a hint of Gilmour thrown in there, not to mention some Spanish guitar --- well, you'd expect that, wouldn't you?
The title track is up next, and it's a quiet, reflective opening with acoustic guitar and choral vocals on the synth, little or no percussion for the moment, then as we move into the first minute it growls up and becomes a hard stomping metal monster, Roch punching in the beat as he charges in on the drums. I'm really enjoying this, but so far I haven't heard anything that could be described as neoclassical. Still, we're only four tracks in, of thirteen, so plenty of time for that I guess. For now it's just straightahead heavy metal, and very satisfying it is too. Think he might be using a talkbox there, but it's very subdued if so. A return to the quieter tone of the opening in the third minute as it all slows down and the choral vocals rise to the fore, then we're back rocking with one hell of a solo to take us to the end of the track.
I'm sure a guitarist could wax lyrical for hours about the techniques used here, the equipment and the way the effects are employed, but I couldn't play a guitar to save my life and understand little of their workings, so I'm left to just try to describe the music and how well it's played. “Bouree”, the shortest track here at just over two minutes, sounds like it's played on a lute or lyre, and is very medieval in nature. I could almost hear flutes and whistles coming in as accompaniment. No? No. The piece is over pretty quickly, and I guess to a degree, with its somewhat baroque style could be said to be the first indications of neoclassical on the album. “Lake of silence” turns out to belie its title, as it's a romping rocker with galloping drums, while “In darkness” seems more of a candidate for a slow song, with its deep stately synth opening. It's not though, as it quickly ramps up to a serious metal fret-out with dark elements. It does slow down in the end though, floating out on a really nice pastoral acoustic guitar, bringing in “Heart of pharaohs”.
Another rocker, this one features some pretty dirty guitar and a rising synth line with some effect on the guitar that makes it sound like it's snarling a vocal, unless Valdes slipped a sneaky one in (stop it, Batty! Settle down...) and develops into a mid-paced kind of a tune with some really nice shredding, some of it quite Brian May in tone. Rather disappointingly though, there's nothing the faintest bit Egyptian about it. Maybe he felt it would be too much of a cliche, but I would have liked to have heard a “Powerslave” or even Santana-style riff, maybe a Dio? Seems a lot of Mike Oldfield circa “Tubular Bells II” in “Castle in Heaven”, but to be brutally honest it's a little boring. In fact, the whole album has sort of begun to peter out for me now --- it's always hard holding the interest in an instrumental album I know, much more so a guitar one, but still, it sounds like he's just on autopilot now --- so I hope we can get back to the quality for the last four tracks.
The next one up is called “1099 Adagio”, so I'm hopeful for some neoclassical, or even just classical, to come into Valdes's music, and indeed here it comes: one of the best tracks so far. He really handles the Greats so well, putting his own slant on music that has been around and enjoyed for centuries, that he should do more of it. He's a great guitarist, but some of his more metal stuff on this album has definitely started to bore me, as it's beginning all to sound too much the same. This is nice though, and an example of what he can do when he steps outside the often rigid boundaries he has constructed to work within. Rather surprised to hear “Speed metal cop” begin with a gentle flowing passage before it kicks up into something more akin to progressive then power metal, but it's pretty alright. Lot of tension in it and, oddly enough, I hear the Egyptian sound here!
“Voices in a deep” starts with slow dark synth but that's quickly left behind as we head into another fretfest, the keys joining in and pursuing the guitar as it chugs along. Some screaming solos but then it quietens down nicely in the midsection, where Senor Valdes gets all reflective before knocking it back up a notch, and we close on “Far away”, a nice sort of relaxed atmosphere to it. I'm a little disappointed though that there were no real ballads on this, and as I said earlier, more neoclassical should have been a must. Started off very well indeed but pretty quickly got old and a little stifling. Guess it's hard to keep the interest unless you play yourself.
TRACKLISTING
1. Beyond the universe
2. Run up the melody
3. Return to the shadows
4. Imhotep
5. Bouree
6. Lake of silence
7. In darkness
8. Heart of pharaohs
9. Castle in Heaven
10. 1099 Adagio
11. Speed metal cop
12. Voices in a deep
13. Far away
I actually had expected to be raving about this guy, from what I had read and from my initial listens, but as it went on his music just seemed to get a little samey and I was waiting for something to happen. It didn't. He's still a great guitarist, of that there's no question, though he's hardly quite in the Plankton league just yet. Better than Neal Schon, certainly his solo work anyway. I didn't find myself falling asleep halfway through like I did when listening to “The calling”. But metal is either about (mostly) excitement, speed, aggression and power, or in some cases a cosmic shift towards the quiet, pastoral and quite often utterly beautiful. This had flashes of both, but really settled more on the former than the latter, and even that was a little cliched.
Hard to rate I'll admit, but for me this just didn't shine the way I had thought it would. I've said it before more than once: an instrumental album really has to work to keep my attention all the way through, and this one just started to coast along in the latter half, whereupon I began to care less. Finished well, and started well, with some good stuff in between, but sadly, just not quite enough good stuff.