Vinnie Moore - Aerial Visions (2015)

Vinnie Moore is back. He is one of the '80s Shrapnel top dog, having released at least seven studio albums ranging from neo-classic Time Oddysey all the way to modern and more general guitar instrumental style in his latest Into the Core. He is currently UFO guitarist and pretty busy with the band that his last studio album actually released as far as in 2009. Aerial Visions see Vinnie Moore worked again with Dave LaRue, in some of the tracks. As everyone know, LaRue is high profile bassist, serving Steve Morse and many other "shredders". Beside Dave, there are three more bassist in assistance to Vinnie. The drummer in charge is Richie Monica of Tantric.

The first song "Mustang Shuffle" is very much self explanatory. It's an American blues, mustang and on the road feel. It shuffle-d well under Vinnie dexterity playing, straight forward and easy stuff for everyone. Now the second song come with slightly arising in complexity. "Now's the Time" put a lot of melodic licks but still didn't let the listener too difficult passage to grasps. "Faith" is mid-to-slow tempo pastoral feel song with melodic play from the beginning of the song till the end. Those two songs are familiar to UFO fans since they were used by the band also.  On "Slam", Vinnie brings in some funk and then cool bass solo line in the middle. "La Grange" is ZZ Top cover and serves it well in this instrumental version, we can imagine the long beard Billy Gibbons' voice inside Vinnie's guitar. A rather sentimental stuff in on the next one, "Looking Back", is pretty reflective and bring in childhood memories. Although "Aerial Vision" is the album title, the song itself didn't have extra ordinary feature. It is a standard shred piece that can be enjoyed by everyone too. "The Dark Dream" is a perfect composition to put in movie soundtrack, where the antagonist walking down a dark passage with strong light from behind. That's how I get to imagine this song. "Calling Out" is another very melodic composition in the end. The last finale is "A Million Miles Gone" , with extra minutes, this song bring in the most climaxing shred and licks on the album.

Vinnie Moore have become more multi style guitarist.  Here, not a slight trace of his old neo-classical stuff found in Aerial Visions, instead a melodic compositions that run from mid to fast tempo. The songs flowed nicely from the first track to the end. While there are many wonderful ideas in the album, I think this album is one of Vinnie's most easy listening one. Wonderful guitar instrumental album, as always by Vinnie Moore.

Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Vinnie Moore - Aerial Visions (2015)
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01. Mustang Shuffle
02. Now's the Time
03. Faith
04. Slam
05. La Grange (ZZ Top cover)
06. Looking Back
07. Aerial Vision
08. The Dark Dream
09. Calling Out
10. A Million Miles Gone

Vinnie Moore : guitars
Richie Monica (TANTRIC, POPPA CHUBBY) : drums

bass:
Dave LaRue (STEVE MORSE, FLYING COLORS, THE DREGS),
Rob DeLuca (UFO, SEBASTIAN BACH),
Dorian Heartsong (JASON BONHAM'S LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE)
Elliott Dean Rubinson (ULI JON ROTH, MSG)