Marc Pattison - Awaken The Dragon (2005)Chief Dog Records

The next item in Mr. Pattison's solo discography and we can ask ourselves if he decided to change his musical direction or not? After reading my previous reviews on American's music, the answer should be easy to guess. To be formally correct, I remember to write that Marc Pattison plays all the guitars and bass guitar next to his court drummer Bud Salvetti, however here is also a special guest famous for Death, Testament, Sadus or the Sebastian Bach band - a bass virtuoso Steve DiGiorgio on "Planet Number 9".

Obviously, there can appear an accusation that Marc recurs on his releases, but he only does what's best at and does it professionally. I don't mind that "Awaken The Dragon" is the next flurry of digital tones. Much more important fact is that here are shredding typhoons like "Crash And Burn", typically highway tracks like "Guitropolis" and Marty Friedman-esque cuts like "Awaken The Dragon". Yeah, the latter one is very evocative and Asian-coloured what makes it the top composition on the album. I can't avoid Ludwig van Beethoven's "1/5 of Beethoven's Fifth" and mention its majestic performance with its orchestral dignity preserved.

There are many words to describe Mr. Pattison's output: eccentric, twanging, varied, joyful, heavy, catchy, accessible, amusing and instrumentally lush at last. In my humble opinion, Marc consistently and effortlessly gets ahead to his and our advantage. To help matters further, please check the stuff for yourself, haha.