Luke Fortini
The Beginning of Creation

Luke Fortini
The Beginning of Creation
(Earache Digital Distribution) 2023

We are facing a totally instrumental work, in my opinion, I could classify it as a masterpiece or almost.
Let's go step by step and conduct a careful analysis of the product in question, because several arguments are necessary.
Let's start by saying that Luke Fortini is a fairly well-known guitarist in the metal scene as a virtuoso of the instrument.
With this premise many might frown and say; ah, the usual "shredder" on the guitar, playing 200 notes per second.
Okay, it's true, he plays quite a lot of notes and at great speed, but beware!, there is much more in this release of his.
First of all, it's a concept album with a theme as unique as can be, I would say, as it partly deals with the evolution of the earth, giving the title to each track of a specific geological era.
In my opinion, it's a rather curious and unusual concept. What will ever be the style and genre proposed?
I think I would categorize it as Progressive/Neoclassic Metal (but not only, we'll see later).
In fact, the work opens with the first track titled Hadean, a short but intriguing piece, a sinister initial guitar arpeggio leads us into a very dark prog metal flavored riff, then concludes with a very evocative keyboard layer.
It continues with Eoarchean, a decidedly more metal-oriented track alternating neoclassical parts with more prog parts, all flavored with both virtuosic and pleasant solos.
In Paleoarchean, another short piece, Luke plays a melodic solo full of emotion on a very fitting keyboard base.
The fourth track, Mesoarchean, showcases the more metal side with very heavy and elaborate riffs, and here too the good Luke gives us a breathtaking solo, which partly reminded me of something by Michael Romeo with Symphony X.
We continue with Neoarchean, a great neoclassical piece with various nuances within.
We then come to a surprise, the track Paleoproterozoic.
It's a real ambient piece; indeed, there are percussions, various noises, and a guitar that seems to speak in the background, an unusual track that reveals a certain exploration far from trivial.
For the tracks Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic, I feel echoes of King Crimson regarding the riffs and structures, these 2 songs are really intriguing, a video clip was made for the first one.
The same could be said for the tracks Paleozoic and Mesozoic, lots of progressive metal, neoclassical, and monstrous solos.
Special mention for the long and very elaborate Cenozoic, which starts with orchestrations, then takes us to heavy metal territories.
Everything is in this song, including a beautiful piano and clean guitar part in the middle, the finale is explosive with guitar and bass in unison tapping.
We move towards the end with the unexpected piece, The Beginning.
Here Luke seems to take off his metal clothes and put on a completely new outfit, indeed it is a jazz fusion track with superlative guitar phrases (perhaps a nod to Jeff Beck?).
It concludes with Pangea, another decidedly particular track with orchestrations and very evocative ambient sounds.
In conclusion, we can say it's a great work and we extend many compliments to Luke Fortini, who produced and played everything on this album.
Luke is no less than the likes of Malmsteen, Satriani, Vai, and other renowned names, indeed I would say that compositionally he stands out.
The cover artwork is also beautiful, in theme with the proposed concept.
The release officially came out with Earache Digital Distribution, and it is easily available.

Review by Angelowar6