Italian guitar virtuoso Aldo Giuntini is back with a third “project” release, simply entitled III. Aldo, whose influences include Akira Takasaki, Vivian Campbell, Edward Van Halen, Jake E. Lee, John Norum, and Yngwie Malmsteen, has been a solo artist since the late 80s. His second solo offering, II, was released in 1998. Surprisingly, eight years later and III shows up on everyone’s doorsteps with essentially the same line-up, including ex-Black Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin. III offers a total of thirteen new tracks, with two being instrumentals. While being touted as brand new material, everyone seems to be skirting around the topic that the material on this release is actually five years old. In a recent audio interview with Metal Express Radio, Tony Martin was cited as stating that the material on this CD was recorded five years ago and mentioned that he, personally, wasn’t sure why it was being released. Thankfully, Mr. Martin doesn’t run Frontiers Records, otherwise Metal fans would have been denied a quality recording!
The music on III exudes a kind of “Traditional Metal” persona, and maybe for good reasons. The release seems to emulate the energy and quality of some past great releases from Eternal Idol-era Sabbath, Loudness, Dio, and even last year’s Joe Lynn Turner solo CD. This, by no means, insinuates that the music is a “rip-off” (other than the rhythm section in “Que Es La Vida” is undeniably “Heaven And Hell”-like … during which, coincidentally (?), the opening lyrics mention ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’). Certainly this shouldn’t diminish the strength and quality of this release or lead to doubts about its worthiness for purchase. No question about it, this CD is undeniably solid from end to end.
The musicianship, simply stated, is tight from beginning to end. Tony Martin has never sounded better, displaying the vocal qualities he had on Sabbath’s Eternal Idol album. Giuntini himself is an accomplished guitarist and spices up the material with some memorable lead guitar as well as mesmerizing rhythm playing. It’s nice to see a guitarist be as attentive to rhythm sections as well as his solos … possibly an offshoot of the Jake E. Lee/Akira Takasaki influences in Giuntini’s history (check out “Early Warning” for a prime example). The rhythm section of Gaslini and Secomandi is solid, as is the Production through and through. The keyboards by Patti aren’t overburdening, which keeps the Giuntini rhythms sounding quite aggressive and heavy. Even the two instrumentals prove to be quite entertaining, even though “Memories In The Sand” is the slowest number on the release. However, it does feature some powerful, emotional soloing by Giuntini.
Bottom line, if you are even remotely a fan of post-Ozzy Sabbath, especially of the Tony Martin era, and of Dio’s solo works, then this one is a “must buy.” Some of it might sound vaguely familiar, but that shouldn’t deter you from getting a lot of enjoyment out of this entire CD. With so much going on in Tony Martin’s career, it’s uncertain whether or not he’ll be around for (hopefully) version IV of this project. Here’s to hoping that Giuntini has the energy and fortitude to continue to carry the project forward and to keep cranking out quality releases such as III!
Lineup
Aldo Giuntini – Guitar
Tony Martin – Vocals
Fulvio Gaslini – Bass
Ezio Secomandi – Drums
Dario Patti – Keyboards
Fabiano Rizzi – Drums On “Memories In The Sand”
Dario Mollo – Production
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