Search - Tony Macalpine :: Freedom to Fly

A must for any real guitarist...

Dean Swiatek | MA, USA | 01/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been a fan of Tony Macalpine for a while now. I'm also a big fan of the more melodic instrumental guitarists (Steve Vai and Joe Satriani), so this being one of Tony's more melodic albums makes it one of my favorites (not that he wasn't a melodic player from the beginning). Don't get me wrong however, the guitarist on this album is unmistakably Tony Macalpine.



The first time I heard Tony Macalpine was when he first joined Planet X. There was a video clip on the Planet X website of Tony Macalpine playing a solo and it was probably the fastest yet still clean and smooth bit of soloing that I have ever heard. Since then I realized I had never heard any of his solo materials and did a google search on Tony Macalpine. I found three tracks, "Tears of Sahara", and two off Freedom to Fly, "Ice Princess" and "Salvation." I was blown away! What I was hearing almost sounds like a paradox these days... a shredder with melodic sense!



This is one of my favorite Macalpine albums, and is probably the most underrated guitar album ever if not one of his other offerings. It's worth the price for Ice Princess, Champion or Salvation alone, but the rest of the album is quite good too."

OK, but pales in comparison to the rest of his work

Ian J. Einman | Bellevue, WA | 11/16/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I love Tony MacAlpine. To me he is one of the gods of guitar. Edge of Insanity, Maximum Security, Evolution, Premonition, even Chromaticity, all have great stuff. I highly recommend his stuff in general.That said, I think this album is weak. He is a good guitar player as always, but the tunes here are light and simple, this is neither the heavy metal nor the complex jazz influenced stuff he has been known to do. I listened to this, and although not a single song was "bad", they were all kind of cookie cutter attempts at making something groovy, like he was experimenting with glam rock or something. Flashy and simple tunes from someone known for calculated and serious performance.Some people might enjoy this CD; I think it has more mainstream appeal, but it isn't something I find myself ever listening to. I can't pin down what's wrong with it, it doesn't suck, but it just doesn't click.Check out one of his many better albums."

A little defeat for this guitar talent

Pietro Vuolo | Venezia, Italia | 10/16/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion, this is a bad outcome from Macalpine but this depend on my expectations from Tony's works. When an artist make a masterpiece as "Maximum security" it's quite impossible to keep that high-level with the following records. Moreover the engineering and production of the album could have been better and perhaps those days were not the best days for Tony. Anyway the record is easy listening but too maestoso and not much energetic and no track's standing out from the others. Buy it only if you are a fan of Tony or if you've already "Maximum security" and would like something more relaxed."