MIKE FLORIO – Arisen

Cover	Release	Style
	2006	Symphonic Rock
	Label
	independent
	Website
	http://www.massdream.com
	Contact

	Playing Time	Cat. N°
	42:15
	Review by	Rating
	Daniëlla	7/10
nederlands	Review
This is the 1st solo-album of Mike Florio, who, after years of frustration at finding (and keeping) the most suitable band, decided to take the production in hands himself, in order to obtain a correct reproduction of his music, the way he wanted it to be. “Bells for 1827” (taken as an ode to the composer Beethoven and his era) opens impressively with Mike on the keyboards. After some beautiful, woolly, minutes with bell sounds, he moves to a swinging, up-tempo rhythm. Mike sings about the old masters and is wondering if they’re still appreciated. Unfortunately its voice is not just as persuading as the music of this beautiful, smooth song in which the different instruments anticipate splendidly on each other. “Binary World” has a powerful intro which reminds me a bit of Van Halen (as a matter of fact, so does the rest of the song), I think that Mike Florio is more inspired by those brothers then he knows himself… Firm guitar lines, varied with the correct keys, bass lines and the correct drums. Even the singing together is not really annoying. Also “Fractured” starts very beautiful with the keyboard, tingling and very fresh. Mike’s voice sounds better in this song where he’s concerned about the youth, growing up and trying to avoid falcon owls. This song has a smoothly combined action of keyboards and guitar lines with a briefly but powerful end. The following song “Pretending” has a gentle, melodious start, Mike shows his talent with the keys, about the 2nd minute he starts to play very sparkling, then the guitar lines and the bass and drums are coming together very well. On the end the song is losing his credibility and dies a quiet dead. In the up-tempo song “Media Ride” Mike makes a charge against the devastating impact of the media. Nice singing together, very smooth guitar play, good irruption of the keyboards but the voice of Mike is missing a bit of strength. In “Paradise of Stone” the voice of Mike Florio (a bit irritating), reminds me of Brian May in inferior moments, a bit of a fretful song, the attempt to split up the song in several fragments isn’t succeeding. This is more of chaos than a fine piece of music. Around the 5th minute it sounds a bit better with fine guitar sounds but then the end is especially dominated by the not-this so-well voice of Florio… The last number “Violent Moods” is starting very well with Mike at his best: on the keyboards! In this song, concerning the danger of violence, Mike is singing more strongly. Fine keyboards but around the 4th minute we can enjoy the guitar lines and the drums as well. Halfway the end of the song the style changes and we get a beautiful finish: awesome teamwork on the entire instruments. The last minute is reserved for the keyboards and the voice of Mike. Final conclusion: if you love symphonic rock: there’ll be certain some beautiful moments to discover. What concerns the singing: the voice of Mike Florio is one that you’ll love or hate…
Musicians
Mike Florio: keyboards & vocals Bill Thomas: guitars Dave Bailey: bass Steve Golden: drums
Tracklist
Bells for 1827 (7:24) Binary World (5:55) Fractured (4:38) Pretending (4:33) Media Ride (3:38) Paradise Of Stone (9:09) Violent Moods (6:85)


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