Music Review: Steve Vai, Aquiles Priester and Gustavo Carmo, Adam Moore

Guitars, guitars, and yet more guitars, served up hot. The drums ain’t too shabby either.

by Ilya Stemkovsky

Steve Vai

Stillness in Motion—Live in L.A.

drummer: Jeremy Colson

Recorded fifty shows into an extensive tour, Stillness in Motion finds the ageless Steve Vai existing comfortably in Guitar God mode, with drummer Jeremy Colson shadowing his every step in perfect harmony. Colson’s deep pocket and great sense of dynamics are all over Vai classics like “Tender Surrender,” and just try not to grin listening to “The Animal,” where the drums and guitar engage in a game of “who can play the longest fill”? There’s no clear-cut winner. (Sony/Legacy)

Aquiles Priester and Gustavo Carmo

Our Lives, 13 Years Later…

Drummer: Aquiles Priester

Aquiles Priester teams up with guitarist Carmo Gustavo (plus bass and keys) for some blazing instrumental prog on Our Lives, 13 Years Later… The notes are flying by, and Priester’s always-impressive double bass work would make drum programmers envy with its precision. Check out the title track for some Dream Theater-esque machine-gun fills and cymbal choking. (aquilespriester.com)

Adam Moore

Swung by Seraphim

Drummer: Chad Wackerman

Guitarist Adam Moore’s newest EP is a decidedly less rock, more fusion styled affair, and Chad Wackerman appears on a couple of tracks, slaloming through the odd-metered title track with an insistent ride pattern and manicured fills. Dig his solo in “The Theatre Garden,” an exercise in cascading toms and gentle snare ghosting. (download only from itunes.apple.com)