| CD REVIEW Glen Drover |
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Band : Glen Drover I suppose most of you will know Glen Drover best from his tenure with Megadeth, with whom the Canadian born guitarist was active between October 2004 and January 2008 (leaving to concentrate on family life)...but of course his career encompasses more than just that! He started playing guitar as a child, and was joined at age 10 by his drum playing brother Shawn. Together, they founded the Thrash/ Power Metal act Eidolon, which has released 7 albums to date (the last, and probably the very last – read on – being 2006's The Parallel Otherworld). In 1998 Glen started a 2-year tenure with King Diamond backing up Andy LaRocque. He appears on the band's 2000 album House Of God (which I reviewed back when it was released). Following the release of Megadeth's 2004 album The System Has Failed, Dave Mustain went in search for a new band to go on the Backmail The Universe world tour...what was supposed to be the band's final tour before Mustain was to start a solo career. Among the people chosen was Glen, whom suggested his brother Shawn (still with Megadeth to date) as a replacement for the originally intended drummer. Somehow Mustain got a taste for things Megadeth again, in 2005 even starting what was to be the annual Gigantour. Glen's first appearance on a Megadeth release was on the Capitol Records (double disc) compilation DVD Arsenal Of Megadeth (released March 2006), followed by the DVD That One night: Live In Buenos Aires (recorded during the band's Blackmail the Universe tour and released March 2007). Megadeth's new studio album United Abominations was released in May 2007, not only featuring Glen's lead guitar work, but also writing contribution on one song. During the album's recordings Glen also contributed a guest guitar solo for the album title trackon Swedish band Lion's Share's album Emotional Coma (recording it in Canada and sending the file to the band via Internet). Towards the end of 2007, Glen was feeling the negative effects of the constant touring with Megadeth, and after playing his last show with the band in Brisbane, Australia, on November 18, he decided to leave the band in December (confirmation of which came in January 2008 in a communiqué by Mustain), and move onto another chapter in his music career. After only a short break Glen decided to begin an instrumental band to play a mixture of Modern Metal, harder edged Jazz Fusion, and Prog. So he contacted his drummer friend Chris Sutherland to communicate the idea, and the latter immediately suggested his friend Paul Yee to play the bass. He also recommended Jim Gilmour of the band Saga (with whom he'd played for a short while) as a keyboardist for the project. Just to test how these musicians would interact, the decision was taken to record a couple of demo covers (one from Al Di Meola, two from Jean-Luc Ponty), the result of which exceeded each member's expectations. So off to work on original material Glen went, assisted in at least part of the tracks (dixit the info on Glen's Wikipedia page) by Adagio's Stephan Forte (of the 10 tracks half are actually re-worked versions of material originally from Frank Zappa, Al Di Meola, and Jean-Luc Ponty). During the recordings, which took over 2 years to complete (partly due to the interruption caused by Glen replacing Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick during their Mexican tour dates with Judas Priest in late October 2008...and then again during the whole month of March 1010 for a North American tour with Megadeth and Exodus). Glen also invited several axe colleagues (Chris Poland, formerly of Megadeth, now of Ohm; Classic Metal master Vinnie Moore; Jeff Loomis of Nevermore; Fredrik Äkeson of Opeth and Talisman repute; and Steve Smyth of Bay Area Thrashers Forbidden) to put down a contribution of theirs. Whatever, let the music do the talking, is what I always say. And the music is indeed very exiting. Regretfully, you'll have to make due with the samples made available at the album's page on one of the trusted online sales websites that may carry the album, because at (www.) myspace.com/glendroverofficial you'll only find the one complete track (until April 1st that was a mere sample itself) “Egyptian Danza”. Well...that ain't too bad, and it perfectly illustrates how the instrumentalists leave each other a freedom to shine separately. Of course, always having been a fan of instrumental Rock/ Metal, my rating of this album is somewhat prejudiced, but I'm sure that many lovers of this type of music will follow me in placing Metalusionin their year-lists. 98/100 Tony. |