Maestro Alex Gregory's Penta Orchestra - Another Millennium? (2000)Fartissimo Music

"No guitars, no keyboards, no drum-kits were used on this recording!" - these are the words in album's booklet. They aren't jokes or tomfoolery, but an evidence of Maestro's revolutionary solutions in instrumental sphere by using self-invented instruments. What is the thing? Best way to explain this complexity is enumerating the artists who have made up the Penta Orchestra: Maestro Alex Gregory (conductor, first pentalin), John Levesque and Barbara Dietrich (voices), Otto von Fünf (2nd pentalin), Andreas Friederich Kant and Martin Van Zeyl (pentatars), DJ Penta and Ty Longley (celloblasters, pentacellos), Robert Ryder (pentabass), Max Vindaloo (groove drums), Bernie Dresel (harmonic drums - drummephone) and a virtuoso - Albert Lee (clean pentatar solos on 2 tracks). Mr. Gregory invented a new mathematical twist on instruments and proved it in practice on "Another Millennium?".

Hi, everybody! This is the year 2000! I have the honour of inviting the humankind to the Final Judgement, haha! Nostradamus' prophecies suggested this event, but it turned out to be a sheer bluff. According to the Holy Scriptures, we can be sure that nobody (except God) knows when it will be. Well, this CD is started by a massive and heavy overture at devilish fast tempo. Upon listening to the stuff, you can feel a vibe, majesty and darkness in Maestro Gregory's parts. Actually, it is a sonic typhoon that acts like steamroller going through our brains. Aforementioned singers' vocal lines are formidable and ominous. Metal Maestro's ingenuity is exceptional and rewarding for himself and the listeners. His distinctive style has been retained intact, and solos are glorious and keen, so we can only get out of a pure pleasure off them.

I have the slightest idea how to describe his unique stuff, but a virtuosic metal opera would correctly reflect the contests, stressing that a heaviness overweighs the virtuosity. Winding up my review on Mr. Gregory's album, I call on you to go to a secluded place, plug in your CD player, amplifier, equalizer and loudspeakers to move heaven and earth, haha. Well, Maestro is very ingenious man, so I can't be worse and offer absolutely new qualification for his music work, that is EEE metal opera. Why is it so? Since his orchestral accompaniment is eccentric, experimental and evil, haha. Maestro himself isn't satisfied with the mastering. Obviously, I could write that this item differs from "Paganini's Last Stand" and "12 Jokes For Heavy Metal Mandolin", but it would be boring if all Gregory's releases would have been the same and sound identical. I am not a grumbler, and my part is not being a destructive critic, but only a constructive listener. For me, a Briton is a born-and-bred virtuoso being distinguished by inventive ideas. In my humble opinion, Alex Gregory can be the one who is at the cutting edge of neoclassical metal, especially as he is the first heavy metal mandolin ace I got to learn about. But this matter is still pending and left for listeners to settle.