Luke Fortini
Technical Supremacy

LA RECENSIONE

Luke Fortini
Technical Supremacy
2022 Lion Music

With immense pleasure, I return to discussing a talent from our own country, the legendary Luke Fortini.
I had already reviewed his latest work, but I would like to discuss this release as well.
It's worth noting that it was released under the Lion Music label, which mainly focuses on world-renowned virtuosos, among them Joe Stump, George Bellas, Rusty Cooley, and other well-known names.
Evidently (and deservedly, I would say) they must have seen a great potential in our Luke.
But let's start with the first track, a simple evocative intro with the guitar weaving melodies over a bed of keyboards, a good piece but not memorable.
Now it seriously kicks off with the title track, 8 and a half minutes of tapping, sweeping, odd times, and shred solos with no holds barred.
Worth noting is the extreme clarity in the execution of scales and sweeps, truly a great shredder.
Next is Revenge, a very complex piece with odd riffs, more paced compared to the first track, needless to say, here too a monstrous guitar solo comes in at the end.
Now comes a particular track: Megalodon, which starts very subdued and atmospheric, but then opens up to very metal parts and great solos in the style of Malmsteen.
What can I say about Opus Omnia? 9 minutes of class, shred, neoclassical, and Iron Maiden-like melodies.
This track for me is stellar and I believe it's the best of the entire album.
We are overwhelmed by an avalanche of notes with the piece Il Diavolo, characterized by alien shred à la Michael Angelo, incredibly clean and precise.
Now comes a small surprise, the track A Different Way, which showcases a totally jazz side with clean guitar and fitting phrases, which I particularly appreciated.
On Mysterious Life Forms, we return to progressive metal and shred territories, also note the bass parts, always played by the good Luke.
Serial Killer is a much heavier and more intense track, with excellent riffs almost bordering on death metal.
It all concludes with Walking on the Bridge, a piece I would define as shred blues, as it mixes rock blues parts with excellent phrases to metal parts.
In conclusion, I can say that this album is recommended for lovers of shred and guitarists, even if here and there are interesting progressive metal elements.
However, I find it a notch below The Beginning of Creation, because this release is more oriented towards shred and a bit less on composition.
However, one must consider that Lion Music's publications are precisely focused on shred and guitarists.
I still want to affirm that Luke Fortini deserves the title of Italian Malmsteen, I'm sure he is great.

review by Angelowar6