DANIELE LIVERANI – Daily Trauma

Daniele Liverani is a skilled guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, and story composer, who some may recognize from his association with the bands Empty Tremor and Khymera. Liverani’s recent claim to fame is his Genius Rock Opera trilogy, of which 2 parts have been released. The story line of this Rock Opera includes 2 main characters, Genius and his friend Twinspirit 32, lost in a dream world and trying to find a way to escape the Maindream Soldiers. Daily Trauma is the all-instrumental “soundtrack,” of sorts, to this Rock Opera that musically outlines events related to Liverani’s actual Rock Opera story line. Liverani plays a host of instruments within this album, helped by only Dario Ciccioni, who handles the drum work.

WHAT’S GOOD

The musicianship throughout this instrumental album is indeed excellent. Liverani is an innovative guitarist and bassist in the ilk of Satriani, and adds some great effects with his keyboard work, along with a number of other instruments and sounds. Ciccioni, likewise, performs admirably, and successfully shows his stuff throughout this album by adding some nice drum fills and by throwing a change up or 2 with use of non-conventional percussion apparatuses like jungle tom-toms. The production quality is also as impressive as the musicianship. The album has a full-bodied sound, and all instruments come through with proper emphasis, power, and volume. Lastly, Liverani is successful (most times) in having his instrumentals follow the mood and tone of the intended storyline – certainly a difficult task at best … and at 74+ minutes long, listeners most definitely get their money’s worth!

WHAT’S LESS THAN GOOD

No matter who the artist may be, at 74+ minutes long, a writer can’t help but to throw a bit of musical wadding into an instrumental CD. Liverani is guilty of this too, but only to a minor degree. About half of the songs sound completely original musically, but the other half have noticeable Satriani tendencies, and could easily pass for Satriani tunes if they hypothetically were to show up on one of his albums. This stylistic tendency isn’t necessarily a bad thing (especially if you enjoy Satriani’s style), but potential buyers should know of this trait before plopping down the jack for this CD.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fans of the Genius Rock Opera CDs will need to get their hands on this CD too to round out the storyline. Daily Trauma, overall, is an innovative and diverse musical expression covering several genres of Hard Rock and Metal – a sure bet for fans of instrumental music – and kudos are due to Liverani for his creative accomplishments within this release. Watch out, but fans of Liverani may actually find this “addendum effort” to be better overall than parts 1 or 2 of the Rock Opera itself!