Mr_Iko

There’s a small mistake, perhaps insignificant for the purposes of the review, but I’d like to correct it: the most passionate anti-Bush-war-monger groups are not Radiohead and Pearl Jam, but rather NOFX and Living Colour, who, without beating around the bush, sing "Bush is an Idiot" and "Bush is a Terrorist" at EVERY PERFORMANCE they participate in. Plez don't hate americans not just they're americans. Hate their government. As for the rest, the relationship between the words used and the impressions left by the review is spectacular: really well done.

Ah ah ah! Do you think you can change my mind through the use of insults? Deluded and inept...

2. It's not because you burned your palate the last time you cooked pizza that you should blame the manufacturer. Blame, instead, the oven: next time, suck it while it's still frosty. Also because you won't have enough teeth left.
3. Stress balls are great, but only if you keep your nails trimmed. If you let your pinky nail grow long for cleaning your ears, well, you can't expect not to be anxious.

And I wanted to reiterate that I will soon find you and teach you how to play the drums with your face. Insolent, arrogant, snotty little wisecracker, as soon as I find you (and if you keep hanging around these pages, I will definitely find you), you will have the privilege of becoming the first man on earth able to roll with his chin. Go ahead and eat your carrots. And your bananas, monkey.

Jee, do you want me to teach you how to play the drums with your face? Snotty little sentence-spitter that you are, have you read any insults from me? Do you want to see if the mentally challenged can play something well for you? How dare you be so insolent and arrogant? Incompetent, retarded, know-it-all... you’re lucky not to be near me right now, you really made me angry. Not to mention you’ve deeply disappointed me. You’ve run out of arguments and, like everyone else like you when cornered, you retreat into insolence and insults. Good job, good job. As soon as I see you, I’ll teach you how to play the drum with your face.

Finally, I come to the conclusion: plagiarism of an improvisation by Hendrix (him again, don't you listen to anything else? Do you know Ghigo Renzulli from Litfiba?). Look, on the same album there's The Man From Seattle: a song dedicated to Hendrix by Vai who (besides affirming his love for Jimi) has suggested in more than one interview that for the tribute song to Hendrix he was inspired by typical sounds of the man from Seattle. Basically, he openly stated that he rehashed the same things as Hendrix, just played differently. Do you really think he's that stupid, if your very serious accusation were true, to omit this other "inspiration"? Do you really believe that among so many axe enthusiasts no one has noticed, when the inspiration is drawn from the most followed, known, studied, and dissected axeman in the history of the guitar? Where are you coming from, excuse me? I renew my invitation to listen to Ghigo Renzulli; it's more within your reach.

4. But let's get to the bullshit "non plus ultra" that you wrote: tapping is Van Halen. First of all, in Genesis, Steve Hackett was playing tapping as accompaniment before Van Halen even existed, then this is another one of those clichés, so common, that I feel like shutting down my computer every time I read them. What a beautiful insight you had! Well done! Brilliant! A novelty! Tapping is Van Halen... But V@f*@#磧%! So, should no one use tapping anymore, otherwise they're copying Van Halen! Please, stop it. Tapping is not the exclusive and private property of Van Halen (who, by the way, does not have absolute mastery of all the solutions like Vai, McAlpine, George Lynch, Milan Polak, Greg Howe, or Ritchie Kotzen...) Van Halen uses tapping a bit like Petrucci does, maybe to release tension, maybe to show off, I don’t know, but it's not on the same level as Vai. Absolutely not. I won't budge on this. I'm also tired of this thing about tapping. Let's stop playing guitar, or else we'll be copying Hendrix or Van Halen!

3. I’m not done. That Wes Montgomery made use of octaves is beyond question, but on the other hand, all guitarists from a certain area have overused that solution: Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Raney, George Benson... The idea that deserves to be highlighted is Vai's approach to bringing that soft sound, which comes from playing the root and octave simultaneously, into a much sharper harmonic context, such as rock compared to jazz.

2. The rhythmic intentions and the chords are very Hendrix: but what the hell does that mean? Is it possible that you can't get out of clichés? What does it mean? Every time a guitarist uses "the trick on the mode," making the third degree of the chord twinkle with the fourth, I find someone reminding me that "Hendrix did it ten years earlier"! So what? Who cares, Django Reinhardt was doing it thirty years before Jimi, but no one has the courage to say that the sectorial decomposition of chords made by Hendrix was actually not a novelty at all, except for the approach with which they were played, as well as the underlying dirt always present in Hendrix's works.

The things you say (which I completely disagree with) can be referred to any axeman of the contemporary scene. 1. The structure of the piece is very Santana: why is it built with a dynamic pyramid progression? Is only Santana doing this? Does only Santana build songs in a crescendo only to lower the tones once the peak is reached? But if half of the suites by Ten Years After, Yes, Genesis (I’m talking about genius guitarists like Alvin Lee, Steve Howe, and Steve Hackett…) are built this way!