METAMORPHEUS

Metamorpheus is the second album where Steve Hackett has the opportunity to play with a real orchestra instead of being forced to use new-age sounding synths that make the music sound plastic. The music here is much more full of energy and is overall more orchestrated than A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is fantastic. This suite is very strong, and often darker than the previous orchestrated suite. I sometimes here elements of T. Takemitsu, but definitely not as experimental. The sound is still very much baroque/classical-inspired contemporary classical guitar, but with a profound amount of English impressionism found in the music of composers like R. Vaughan-Williams, F. Delius, or A. Bax, which is a connection that may very well be true considering Hackett's apparent love for classical music as well as being from the United Kingdom.

Another orchestrated masterpiece by the master of contemporary classical guitar.