BEYOND THE SKIES ETERNITY

Buy it - it's Australian!

I bought "Beyond The Skies Eternity" so wanting it to be good - hoping for brilliant - as it is from Australia and I like to support and promote Australian music at every opportunity; alas, it was not to be.

My biggest disappointment with this offering is the repetitiveness of the music. I listened to the album from end-to-end a number of times when it first arrived trying to get into it, and then could not listen to it again for a week as the music just seemed to repeat itself over and over. The second set of sittings did reveal more diversity in the sound - more so in the later half of the album; however with the repeating choral sound and the underlying musical theme running through the work it struck me as being like a movie soundtrack . and a little one-dimensional.

For fans of Petrucci and the like, Ivan Bertolla is clearly a technically accomplished guitarist; there is some breathtaking and blistering guitar work to be found on this album. That in itself may make it worth seeking out a copy.

If you are considering buying this album I recommend you have a listen to the excerpts from this album on Ivan Bertolla's website to get a feel for it first. My rating: 3 stars . and half of one of those stars is because it is Australian.

What we have here, an australian musician with an instrumental album Ivan Bertolla with his album Beyond the skies eternity from 2002. Maybe the majority of you doesn't know who this guy is , but he made some noise around the guitar players from today. Anyway this album is a good one delivering some intristing guitar chops and fast keys on the entire album, but sometimes is lacking in ideas. To much the same riffs and the same keys, the same arrangements, i don't know if i'm listning to the first piece Gothic Castle or is the Lost In Infinity the third to give an example. The biggest disappointment with this album is the repetitiveness of the music. Specially i don't like the drum programming at any artist, here sounds to tight without vibrations of any kind to damn robot sound. The best pieces from here are: Gothic Castle and Colliding Galaxies, the rest are in between good and mediocre.. So my final words are is that this album is not bad but to previzible, 2.5 stars rounded to 3, is good to listen from time to time but not very often.