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- Prelude
- The Wrath Of God
- The Nether World
- Astral Maze
- Slay The Dragon
- Outside The Gates Of Paradise
- Repent
- Trance Of Sorrow
- Eye Of The Storm
- Fairytale
- Bouree In Em
- Initiation Of A Timeless Pawn
- A Rose In The Absu
- Liberation Suite
Well there I am sat with my headphones on, chilling
to the ambient vibes of opener Prelude
when the guitar almost blows my brain up! This is shred of stunning
proportions, nice licks with very bluesy bends. This leads into
the the massive The Wrath Of God,
I would have liked to have heard this a little cleaner as their
is a helluva lot of distortion on the guitars. The
Never World is home to some great lead melodies over
a very cool almost egyptian vibe.
Astral Maze sees the
album head in more melodic waters and there is a real attention
to the vibe here. This track would fit well on Vai's 'Passion
& Warfare', its home to some quite exquisite playing and
the change of pace makes it stand out very well. Slay
the Dragon has a very cool Randy Rhoads sort of vibe
to it mixed with some enchanting tonal bends that are reminscent
of Marty Friedman. Outside The Gates Of
Paradise sees the tempo drop and the intensity level
sink for another melodic piece. Again some great licks here
and the cleaner tone shows what a good feel Kevin has (this
is sometime masked by the sheer amount of disrtortion in his
tone elsewhere).
Repent continues the
cleaner textures with an almost exotic sound meeting jazz and
classical, very hard to describe and very original. Trance
Of Sorrow is another track that allows Kevin to pour
out his soul through the guitar, again the melodies show that
Kevin has a great touch and an individual sound. Eye
Of The Storm starts with a minute of storm effects before
a riff comes in, sadly this is quite inaudible being eaten up
by too much distortion on the rhythm guitar, the lead lines
however are good. Fairy Tale is
home to some more good lead work, whilst Bach's Bouree
In Em is a timeless classical guitar piece.
Initian Of A Timless Pawn
is home to some great latin acoustic work with mandolins and
acoustic guitars, the production here is superb with each insturment
having great depth. A piece very different to the rest of the
album and shows another side to Kevin's musical abilities. A
Rose In The Absu is another great mid tempo track with
great lead work, and home to some great harmonisation. A nice
tapping passage sits well with the backing, theres an almost
Uli Roth mentality coming through the track. 2 minutes in, the
track takes a turn into heavier territories with some more harmonised
lines. Liberation Suite ends the
album with some more nice clean work and acoustic textures,
quite an ecletic sound that has some Vai like quirky licks.
A strong way to end the album.
Initiation is a collection of tracks inspired by
dreams and experiences from meditation Kevin has encountered
over the last ten year (a similar basis to what Vai's Passion
& Warfare was inspired by), however the 14 track on offer
show Kevin to be a fine guitarist with some superb guitar skills
through a multitude of styles. For the most part this is an
inspired selection of instrumental, occassionally marred by
the rhythm guitar sound which lack definition and therefore
causes some clutter in the mix, but otherwise this is a fine
introduction to a player that I suspect we will be hearing more
from over the coming years.
Click the G9 logo above to hear soundclips and buy online.
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Kevin
M Buck
Genre: Latin Acoustic to Neo-Classical Shred
Kevin M. Buck was born in 1977 near Chicago. When
Buck was five years old, he had a vision of himself playing
the electric guitar. Soon after, he started playing violin (the
closest instrument offered) in the school band, but never found
it completely fulfilling. Finally, at age eleven, Buck started
taking guitar lessons, most notably from both Harry Hmura, a
great jazz/blues session cat, and Jack Cecchini, a student of
the celebrated classical guitarist Andres Segovia.
Becoming deeply and irreversibly in love with the
instrument, Buck spent much of his time writing music. He practiced
a billion hours a day. By fourteen, Buck was playing the most
difficult solos from Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Steve
Vai note for note. At fifteen, Buck started playing live shows
with Reggae bands (Karl Watson and the New Dynamics, Buster
Morley, and Belizean Breeze), and occasionally performed with
his Belizean dancer mom The Island Queen Marilyn Buck. Here
Buck developed a taste for the excitement of the live show,
but he still hungered for the guitar-heavy sounds of Black Sabbath
and Deep Purple, the vocal assaults of Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie
James Dio.
Buck soon formed Euphoric Darkness, an original
heavy metal band, with his school-mate Eric Pine on the bass
guitar. Euphoric Darkness enjoyed a faithful following throughout
the Chicagoland area, playing at such legendary clubs as The
Thirsty Whale, The Riviera, The Vic Theater, and The Gateway
Theater. The band later became known as Imagery.
At age seventeen, Buck was hospitalized for three
months with a psychotic episode resulting from LSD and the improper
use of magick. After a long rehabilitation process, he felt
a renewed sense of spiritual love for his art. Buck continues
to search for religious, philosophical, magickal, and mystical
truth, although he no longer drops acid.
During his senior year at Lions Township High School,
Buck found work teaching guitar at The Sound Post in LaGrange,
Illinois. Thus, Buck began his thriving teaching career. He
enjoys teaching, and is well-versed in music reading, transcription,
and rhythmic dictation. Teaching has taught him both a great
diversity of styles and patience with humanity. It also allows
him to keep up on current music. Buck presently teaches guitar
and music theory at A Sound Education in Brookfield, Illinois.
He gives private lessons as well.
Buck formed The Blizzard of Ozz, the highly successful
Ozzy Osbourne tribute band, in 1996. Today, The Blizzard of
Ozz continues to tour the Midwest, playing over fifty Black
Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne songs. Buck has received much praise
for his work with The Blizzard of Ozz, and enjoys playing the
music of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. I wouldn't be in any
other tribute act. I love the guitar styles of Randy Rhoads,
Jake E. Lee, Zakk Wylde, and Tony Iommi," says Buck. "The
music offers enough diversity to make my job fun as fuck, and
still allows for my own self expression."
Buck has shared the stage with acclaimed artists
such as Dave Uhrich, Joe Stump, Joe Lynn Turner, Happenin Harry
& the Haptones, Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Disturbed,
Trouble, Enuff Z Nuff, and Roger Daltry who said that Kevin
M. Buck is one of the greatest guitarists ever. Leslie West
of Mountain said, "this kid has a fucking encyclopedia
worth of shit in his mind". Recently, Buck won the 2003
Guitar Idol Competition sponsored by 97.9 WLUP-FM in Chicago.
Kevin M. Buck s first album, Initiation, is
a collection of the songs that have haunted Buck for the past
ten years. These songs were inspired by melodies heard in dreams
and meditations. Initiation displays the incredible guitar style
that dwells within Buck's ethereal, and sometimes devastating,
compositions. Initiation was recorded at Linder Ave. Recording
Studios and released independently on Osiris Records. Buck s
future plans include more recording and touring, and he hopes
to have support from a major label.
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