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IOANNIS ANASTASSAKIS - ORBITAL ATTEMPT
WILD ROSE ANGEL PRODUCTIONS
METAL TO INFINITY
This is the story of a Greek individual - actually a natural born guitar God! Ioannis Anastassakis was a student at the prestigious American College Of Greece... Musicians Institute (GIT) hooked up with him as a potential guitar tutor. He strived for total perfection and sharpened on his knowledge in guitar picking on and on. He graduates at very high level but the sky is the limit for Ioannis and continued his graduate studies in music at the California State University where he followed and successfully succeeded an MA in guitar performance graduating Magna cum Laude. So far a little story of the early years of a young guy grew up dressed up with a guitar around his neck practising fingers to the bone.
As I look to all the other world fame guitarists he got instructions from - an impressive list of magnificent shredders... to mention but a few: Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Joey Tafolla, Richie Kotzen and so on. Ioannis also teamed up with members of bands like Deep Purple, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Badlands,... performing / recording many different settings.
But step by step, this Greek axeman learned to stand his own ground - as owner of his own top-notch skills, Ioannis has presented over 300 solo recitals across the US and Europe. In addition, he has won Classical and Flamenco guitar competitions, he featured many times on American, Spanish and Greek TV, published instructional books / DVDs such as ''60 Tapping Licks For Contemporary Electric Guitar'', ''The Art Of Rasgueado'', ''Flamenco Journal'' and ''The Art Of Tremelo'' worldwide by Mel Bay Publications... this is absolutely impressive all the amazing things one man created so far. I'm convinced this is not the end - I'm quite sure we ain't seen nothing yet! If you're a fan of excellent, over the top and very technical guitar picking, better make notice of a Greek guy named Ioannis Anastassakis.
Lately, he sent me his new effort entitled ''Orbital Attempt'' - it's actually his second solo output and the effort blew me away right from the start. My ears were spoiled by a set of 9 brand new, instrumental compositions and two bonus songs including 1 full backing one where you can hear Ioannis shredding around like a sweet desire. The other bonus track is a sampler where you can hear Ioannis offering his awesome guitar skills to a few other bands playing different types of Metal music. Superb to hear all those shred tactics!!
The new songs took me by surprise also. Each on of the songs has such a great form of passion on board - every track pleased my ears an impressive way with riffings ranges from Classic Metal (with slices taken from the world of Progressive Rock and Metal - check the song called 'The Promised Land') over Rock / Fusion ('Weird Thing')... also fans of Flamenco masterworks better stay very alert during tracks like 'A Mi Madre' and 'Veridiana (Rumba Flamenca)'. I still remember a song from US Metal band Steeler featuring Yngwie Malmsteen back then called 'Hot On Your Heels', it started with a Flamenco demonstration too before the song switched into an amazing, legendary US Metal song!!. it can be considered as my first contact with a guitar use in a Flamenco manner and it's still very memorable to me.
''Orbital Attempt'' overwhelmed me because I like to hear great guitar gods providing my ears with the most impressive moves. Ioannis brings it all on as a true professional with an eye for all those magnificent technical moves. A master able to lay down a lot of feelings or emotions while pulling string. No need to bring on a singer in the band - instead we've got the amazing guitar sound of Ioannis Anastassakis telling more than any other vocalist can do. I'm impressed by masterpieces such as: 'Progressive Minds' (+11 minutes of pure technical shred!!), 'The Greek Guitar Power Jam' and 'Astrochicken's Victorious Attack'. Great album to me - convince yourself at: http://www.myspace.com/ioannisanastassakis MY POINTS: 90 / 100