Luca-LJ

It's incredible how often this musician is overlooked. I can't exactly say I'm a fan of his, although I respect and appreciate him, but the silence around him still seems strange to me. He's not just absent on Debaser: he's also missing from Wikipedia and Scaruffi's website, just to name a couple of sites. Anyway, thanks for the mention.

Good "Perspective", pretty much useless "Perpetual Burn". I'll tell you right away that I haven't listened to the others; I am solely basing my opinion on these two. Now, don't come at me with the usual bullshit like "Listen to the others!", because if I find out they are the same as these, you'll be the ones looking foolish. And from the way people talk about them, I can perfectly imagine what the other records sound like. Frankly, I have no desire to hear more; these two are enough for me. If I had to listen to everything that's produced on Earth, I wouldn't have enough money (or time!). Tastes are personal, that's true, but they generally reflect a person's musical upbringing. So, I can't say that Becker is terrible, but I can say that those who find it beautiful listen to music in a way that I do not share. There’s no right or wrong way to experience music, but I would never want my pieces to be listened to in that same way; it's once again just a matter of taste.

It doesn’t contribute to the development of rock music; the fact that it might have inspired a pimple-faced kid to buy a guitar is not very interesting. I also listened to "Perspective" and mentioned elsewhere, though I don't remember where, that it was a nice album, certainly better than this one, but fundamentally it doesn’t do anything I felt a need for even there. No, it doesn’t imitate Malmsteen, but, I repeat, Becker LACKS CREATIVITY regardless of the style he intends to adopt. He can amaze the naïve with some tricks or enchant the unsuspecting with a couple of atmospheric phrases, but that’s about all he can do. I don’t want to say it’s garbage, but: 1- He is not a genius, and you cannot compare him to Beethoven. 2- He might be likable; there’s nothing wrong or incomprehensible about that (I told you, I liked "Perspective"!), but looking at the objective data, he hasn’t invented anything, he doesn’t have a very personal style (on the contrary, he is one of the most anonymous ones out there!), and his compositions have nothing complicated about them, except from an execution standpoint (the little tricks I mentioned earlier).

You can't know "who I am" since you’ve never listened to me. When I said he was helped by chance, I certainly didn't mean he just picked up a guitar and discovered he could play it, or that during concerts he plays completely randomly and has just been lucky so far. What I mean is that by pure coincidence, this guy who played electric guitar very well was also a great fan of classical music, and somehow he came up with the idea of playing that way. It’s a bit like what happened with Tony Iommi from Sabbath, who invented the heavy metal riff because he was inept, not because he was a genius. Malmsteen was the right person at the right time, but his own discography tells us he wasn't a genius: he didn’t last long, the second album was already a copy of the first, and anyway, he never went beyond just copying Vivaldi; he never added anything of his own!
I’ll conclude by saying that he wasn’t even the first to do similar operations: there’s a very long list of musicians who have drawn from the classical repertoire in one way or another (Doors, Deep Purple, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Procol Harum,...). However, all these people thought, "Well, I can't base my career on this! This is fine as a background, for interludes—I can’t just redo what’s already been done!"
So, as you can see, it wasn't enough to have a very skilled guitarist passionate about classical music; it also had to be someone talentless, otherwise this music would have never emerged. Nevertheless, I reiterate that, whether by chance or talent, his work has been very interesting and very important—that's for sure! Becker, on the other hand, serves no purpose.

Old stuff. Malmsteen has done nothing but reinterpret the baroque repertoire for violin on the electric guitar, and then Becker simply followed the latest trend of the moment. I'm not saying they are identical! Obviously, each has their own style, but the genre is that one! You can't pass off Becker as an innovator! And you can't even compare these two with Beethoven, and not because classical music is untouchable and rock is a crude and vulgar genre! Becker and Malmsteen cannot even be compared to Zappa, Barrett, Battiato, and other geniuses of rock music and beyond! I brought up the session musicians because here I saw two opposing factions arguing over the technical superiority of their idol! As for their worth as "actual" musicians, I have already expressed myself: Malmsteen was important and original, but not because he was a genius (on the contrary, he is musically an imbecile!), but simply because chance guided him; Becker is, irrespective of whether he copied Malmsteen or not, more monotonous and sterile (and in any case totally uninfluential on the history of rock, metal, or even just electric guitar).

Does he compose on the computer by moving his pupils? And what would be so difficult about that? I compose on the computer with the mouse, but if the cursor were moved by my eyes instead of my hand, it wouldn't change anything; it just takes a practical program (there are countless ones out there: Sibelius, Finale, Guitarpro, etc.). Beethoven couldn't benefit from the computer revolution, and in any case, he was a composer, not a fool who plays THE JUGGLER WITH THE GUITAR.
I saw Malmsteen make a mistake in a tutorial video, but that seems perfectly normal and right to me: he's demonstrating a guitar lick, he's not performing. In fact, by not cutting out the part where he makes a mistake, he shows his human side, and that's positive for anyone who wants to learn from his video. I've also had the chance to see him live, and I assure you he doesn't make mistakes; he certainly does things that are muuuuch more complicated in concert! The fact is that you guys don't understand a damn thing about guitar, that's obvious: behind every piece there is a long and careful study! If Vai plays a complicated piece for the first time, he could make mistakes too, but that doesn't make him a bad guitarist; it's perfectly normal! You'd be surprised to see how much the "great" guitarists mess up while practicing their pieces! Anyway, who cares about who is better! They are both surpassed; there are myriad unknown session musicians who play better than them. They were ultra-technical when they came out, now they're just "very demanding." And if we want to discuss their ability as composers and not just "how they shred" on the guitar, then we have to say that both are mediocre. However, Malmsteen at least did something new; Becker is just an imitator.

So what do we do? Shall we send him a petition asking him to amaze us once again?

"Beethoven is giving him a blowjob"? Are you guys stupid?

I’ve seen the videos and I have absolutely no complaints about them: masterpieces!

Do I have to tell you the truth? I’ve reassessed them a bit. As Nietzsche teaches, sooner or later we all have to pay the price for the absolute judgments we make in our youth!
Now I feel a bit more mature, and I think Tool are a good band. However, I still don’t feel the need for them, and I still think that “Lateralus” is a bit too monotonous. But other albums by the band are definitely worth noting.