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Vocals : Rob Rock, Mat Sinner, Wade Black
Guitars : Rick Renstrom
Bass : Stephen Elder, Brian Gloddle, Mat Sinner
Keyboards : Ferdy Doernberg, Mistheria
Drums : Richard Christy |
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Rick
Renstrom is an American guitar virtuoso with a slightly different
story.
When he was 15, after seeing Yngwie Malmsteen in a TV special, he
decided to learn to play the guitar. He threw himself with all his
devotion on a musical education and also on some guitar lessons.
Meanwhile, he played as much as possible live in clubs, he played in
six bands and succeeded to perform three to four times a week. Soon,
this diligence started to bear fruit and between 1996 and 2001, Rick
walked away with 3 renowned guitar awards. You can also find him on
several tribute CD’s.
A
spicy detail is that “Opus Lix” was the most downloaded song on the
Internet in the year 2000, followed directly by “Symphony #40”. This
made him the most downloaded unsigned artist on the Internet.
Momentarily, Renstrom is the guitarist on the tour of “Rage Of
Creation”, the band with legendary singer Rob Rock. Rob helped him
with the co-production of this first solo CD “Until The Bitter End”
and did the vocals on 3 of the 11 tracks. We also find keyboard
wizard Mistheria amongst the musicians, a man I came across recently
on the new Brazen Abbot CD. The fact that Renstrom achieved all this
despite a physical handicap on both arms, commands even more
respect.
The
influences of Malmsteen, Richie Blackmore, Uli Jon Roth, Al DiMeola
and other classics are distilled into his own style, which is very
melodic, interlarded with classical themes and dexterity.
‘Calling On Vengeance’ is the first vocal track, sung by Wade Black
(Seven Witches, Crimson Glory). It sounds as a Malmsteen/Rainbow
composition. In ‘Kingdom for Ransom’, the vocals are done by Rob
Rock and I have to confess that this is my favourite singer on this
album. The man just has a golden throat, which he proves on this
track. My curiosity was also focused on the two most downloaded,
instrumental tracks. They seem to be some well known classical
melodies that were moulded in a Renstrom style. These songs lend
themselves pre-eminently to provide a hip but not rebelling
documentary with a very acceptable background.
This album has the advantage that vocal and instrumental tracks are
perfectly alternating, so this is not a CD for guitar freaks only.
It’s
one for the Malmsteen fans amongst us. |
