Attack of the Neon Shark

The solo debut for Italian shredder Alex Masi begins, innocuously enough, with the radio-friendly track Under Fire, featuring ex-Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Jeff Scott Soto. The glossy track, in the vein of prior albums released under Masi - but a little more successfully done - might have been interesting to follow up with. However from here on out, the typical Masi album plan is inverted, the vocals stashed away and instead Attack of the Neon Shark turns out to be an adventurous instrumental romp through Masi's melodic imagination.

After the furious assault of the title track, the guitarist introduces another trademark of his future solo albums, a welcome sense of humor, with the funky Average Green Band, showing some titular as well as compositional playfulness. DFWM is a relentless barrage of the trademark arpeggios and off-kilter fast-picked runs, in some ways presaging Buckethead's atonal finger-stretching excercises.

The "Tail' side is far more exotic and improvisational in nature, beginning with the guitarist bookending a major influence and hero in Alan Holdsworth on Cold Sun. Holdsworth is playing synthaxe here, but still manages to astound with his harmonic innovations, and both this and haunting closer Alleys of Albion sound very much in the vein of his work at that time (Metal Fatigue and especially Atavachron.) The most aggressive, atonal moments are saved for Masi's fairly literal interpretation of ELP's Toccata which veers in directions strange and nightmarish, much to the spirit of the source material. La Lattalia is perhaps the overall best of this set, a jazzy, strutting tune with some of the best soloing Masi has done anywhere. Special note here must also be given to drummer Frankie Benali, who once again outclasses his daytime gig and proves a sympathetic and surprisingly nimble rhythmic foil to Masi's shifts and tempo changes.

Owing to brevity, but also its pallette of sytles and sonics finally in the proper element, the album showcases Masi as a likeable personality as a player and composer, with more consistency than prior efforts. It establishes a fusion side he would put to good effect with future efforts, like the work he's done with John Macaluso in MCM and solo efforts like Late Nights at Desert's Rimrock. All in all, Attack of the Neon Shark is a substantial improvement for the guitarist, who would go on to a wide-ranging career, if not as much in the limelight as he was for a moment here.