(Wild Rose Angel Productions) Total Time: 72:57
Ioannis Anastassakis surely has an impressive bio. He is a guitar viruoso who has studied with many electric guitar legends, including Vinnie Moore, John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Frank Gambale, Marty Friedman and with flamenco guitar masters such as Manolo Franco, Paco Serrano among others. He is also an author of instructional books and a music professor. Among all these activities Anastassakis have found the time to record several solo efforts and to make guest appearances on other artists’ album. Obviously he has a full and impressive CV, don’t you think?
“Suspension of Disbelief” is Anastassakis’ new studio effort. Listening to this strictly instrumental rock / fusion cd, you realize how good this guy is. An extremely skilled guitarist, whose outstanding technique allows him to play fluently different guitar styles. From the almost power metal “Suspension of Disbelief” which opens this cd to the pure flamenco cover called “Variations on Malaguena”, Anastassakis gives a great performance and proves how talented he is. But the most important characteristic of his playing is the fact that he uses his technique to build beautiful melodies that have the ability to draw the listener’s attention even if he is not a guitar geek. Bob Katsionis, also one of the most active new Greek metal musicians makes a significant contribution to this recording by performing the keyboard parts and making the drum programming.
Although I am not at all a fan of instrumental cds (in most cases they are addressing only to musicians and not to casual music fans) I enjoyed this one. On the other hand I have to declare that I would surely prefer to hear Anastassakis playing with a proper full band (with a real drummer for instance).
