These albums have surprised me, especially Roine's one.
After playing "?", I was a bit overwhelmed by the length of the piece. It is a song in the vein of 'Garden of Dreams' which is divided into many sections. some songs are ok/good, while others are great. "12" contains a brilliant Hackett solo that reminds me of Firth of Fifth (I played this track 3 times in a loop because of the solo) I will play this album many more time before judging it. For now, it looks like a B- in my prog grade scale: slighly weaker than the previous two albums because of lack of originality... but I predict it to turn into a B+ after time
Wall Street Voodoo seems like a masterpiece of guitar-oriented music. First, I was surprised that this was not prog, that Roine let out a few curses, and that the music is like a Jimmi Hendrix-Led Zeppelin hybrid!. The song writing in this album is not that great (somewhat inferior to neal morse's "?") but the guitar playing is what makes this album so great. Songs like The Observer and Remember blew me away! After listening to this album, I am starting to think that Roine is as good as guitar maestros such as Steve Howe, Eric Clapton, Steve Hackett, Jimmy Page, Al DiMeola, Santana, and others. For now : an A- in my prog grade scale. I think I may lose interest after listens since it is not very complex music. Instead, it is just a bunch of great guitar licks played after good, if not great, melodic vocal passages
Bravo Neal.
Bravo Roine!!!