Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

“Slave to the Fingers” is the debut EP of Australian journalist and Rocker, Joe Matera who has been successful in writing a few colorful songs. In this EP, Joe used some elements of classic Rock and Roll (like Deep Purple and Rainbow) mixed with some elements of Classical music from the Romance Era. In my opinion Joe paints a colorful painting on a canvas. This is characterised by small and thin figures in an open composition, the emphasis being on the power of light and a wonderful tonality of colors that dance on the whole of the canvas. “Impressionism” is how I would describe this work and it puts me in the mind of some paintings of Claude Monet or Alfred Sisley.

Starting with the intro, just like when an artist is mixing colors and oil, it is short and not so fast and it’s like rocking the colors with a brush. The second track is the self titled one, and a point where the past meets the present. I feel I found a Joe Satriani in 19th century who plays Romance music with an electric guitar and new technology.

Many people like an instrumental track, especially when they need some moments for relaxing and rest, “Cruise Control” is written for that time – it is colorful and full of positive energies that may help you feel peace with yourself at last. All the notes look like yellow, orange and green colors in a beautiful blue sky as the background. It seems we have Joe Satriani and Steve Vai making an appearance again in “Out Of The Blue” that is a blues Rock song. They picked up their brushes and move onto pentatonic and blues scales, painting another great view on our canvas. However it is not so fast and technical but beautiful and peaceful. Now it’s time to finish the painting, some blue streaks there, one yellow speckle here and it’s done, now take a look at the canvas, Nice Work! “Face Off” is the last song of this EP, from the first note, you getl a good vibe and a feel of saying a goodbye to good friends that you wish to see again. So you probably want to play “Slave to the fingers” again.

In my opinion ‘Bending’ is the unique technique of playing guitar that can show the difference between world class guitar players, master guitar players and amateur guitar players, and the using of it in artwork was really genius. As my final words, if you are a die hard fan of MANOWAR, or if you are always looking for some fast and technical instrumental songs, this album is not for you but it is for rest of you who are always looking for good music. And my rate for “Slave to the Finger” is 7 / 10.

PS:  Slave To The Fingers is released via W.A.R Productions/Mercury Fire Music.

* Official Website of JOE MATERA

* JOE MATERA’s page on Itune!

* Interview with JOE MATERA on METAL SHOCK FINLAND

Review by Mohsen Fayyazi