Mystery

It's not that I dislike Yngwie Malmsteen, but I do take umbrage at him becoming so synonymous with the neoclassical shred genre, that no one else ever seems to get time in the spotlight. So I took matters into my own hands and discovered a Greek guitar virtuoso named Angelo Perlepes. His 'Mystery' began in the mid-80's and was influenced by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, and Deep Purple. My expectations were high and hopeful, and kicked square in the groin within the first two tracks.

Neoclassical metal is often stymied by a vocalist, and Mystery is no exception. The singer's prosody sounds unnatural and awkward, which, in fairness, may have something to do with the lyrics. "I'm just tired of being mistreated by female superiority" is one of many spittake-inducing zingers on display here, and I'm pretty sure it's against the law to steal from Anvil's trash can. To attribute my disappointment with 'Do Me Love' and 'Baby Blue' entirely to the vocalist wouldn't be at all fair, though. One of the many victims of a painfully dated and out-of-place space-synth intro, Baby Blue also features a frustratingly slow series of humdrum percussion, and most inexcusably of all, guitar-work that consists only of a powerchord progression that wouldn't sound out of place in an album by The Cars. There are of course occasions where Perlepes gets to shred, but its such a jarring juxtaposition following the mega-cheese "Tell me baby what went wrong, cause all this love should be so strong" chorus.

Just as I was about to give up on Mystery and begrudgingly return to Rising Force, 'Unicorn' and 'Burning Eyes' managed to win me back with some of the album's more ambitious classical shredding that was largely missing up until then. Most fans of Malmsteen would also extend their lower lip in approval at the technical know-how in the long-awaited instrumental 'Angel's Cappricio'. Alongside it is one of the most memorable and talented bass sections in the album as well. If you were feeling generous, it remind you a bit of Akira Takasaki's eccentric solo work. But all in all, it's disappointing that Perlepes only managed to prove himself as an accomplished shred guitarist and arpeggio aficionado within the last five minutes of the album. A mystery this most certainly was, that only the most diehard of neoclassical shred fans will bother to solve.