Search - Tony Macalpine :: Edge of Insanity

The best album you've never heard

Jonathan Jones | Baltimore, Md | 12/02/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Putting Tony Macalpine together with Billy Sheehan put this album over the top. While other bassists such as Tony Franklin serve well as a backdrop to Macalpine's virtuoso assault on guitar and keyboard, Sheehan takes it to the next level with acrobatic bass counters. How Macalpine has never gotten more press is one of the great mysteries....."

Not for the weak: Intense and frantic

Ian J. Einman | Bellevue, WA | 11/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some people just don't "get" this CD. This is guitar playing compositional excellence. It is fast and furious, but unlike many other similar guitarits, it is NOT a "fast for fast's sake" endless repetition of scale after high-speed scale. The songs are very well written, complex, multilayered compositions.The classical influence is obvious, and his skill is considerable. As someone that enjoys music from speed metal to pop to going to an orchestra now and then, I see this music for what it is, highly skilled songwriting played by an excellent performer. I was absorbed by this CD the moment I first heard it almost 20 years ago, it is like Beethoven on crack. The title of the CD is rather appropriate.Especially if you've never heard Tony MacAlpine before at all, it is hard to really gauge him by short little sound samples. You won't "get" many of these songs until you listen to them a few times and let them sink in. I'll try to give you my sense of this CD: frantic, intense, cold, calculated, complex, and precise."

Meaty Bach-rock

simon manzer | 03/06/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Macalpine plays heavy and fast with lots of classical flash and writes better melodies than Malmsteen. Having Billy Sheehan on the bottom end is always a plus and who knew Steve Smith could play like this? Solid production, too. Blast it when the girlfriend is gone."