Proves that solo's are not dead...
reviewinfear | Canada | 12/23/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I did not know what I was in for when I picked this out for review at my community radio station. I find that it has the classic sound of the 80's metal(mostly iron madien). But anyway, it's a great record, not 1 bad song on it. Evolution(Track 6), is a bass solo which blew my mind. I played it at wormk to a guy who plays bass, he creamed in is pants. This IS a masterpiece, i don't know if i'd pay $34 for it, but if you see it for a reasonable price, then I demand that you buy it. btw, every song has a solo, if not more."
Japan's own Yngwie returns with his second album
John DeWald | Denver, CO USA | 09/22/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The leader of Ark Storm is Katsu Ohta. In fact, the band is apparently officially, "Katsu Ohta's Ark Storm", rather like how some of Yngwie's albums are credited as "Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force".The first Ark Storm disc, "No Boundaries", revealed Katsu to be a very skilled guitarist and showing a lot of neo-classical and Yngwie influence. However, that album was marred by the nearly hilariously screechy vocals and the cliched lyrics. For the new album, Katsu (in true Yngwie fashion) has returned with an all-new line-up of Japanese musicians.The results this time are an improvement. While the album won't win any awards for the lyrics, the vocal deliver is much better and the band is quite talented. Katsu continues to deliver top-notch shredding and the songs are quite listenable.While I hate to keep mentioning Yngwie during this review (as I'm not trying to slag Katsu), there's no question in my mind that fans of Yngwie and Rising Force will really like this CD. It can be expensive to get these CD's in the U.S., so I ordered mine through CDJapan.com for less than I could find them in the U.S."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1