In a cosmological frame where time stood still, there was a truly urgent need for someone to unfreeze the universe from its static condition and take it back to a place where the love of life and understanding would again re-conquer the needs of every living being and the need for the universal language of music as a communication method would be re-established. The chosen one to perform this difficult yet achievable task was picked up to be the alien-bred, sonic surfer, dream warrior, the mighty Joe Satriani himself.
So, Joe after having unlocked himself from an evil time vortex - where he was entrapped by all the unholy anti-sonic powers of the universe - managed to enter his terrestrial studio once again and record some extraterrestrial rhythms and melodies for one more time in his long history. Hmm, what seemed to be in the corridors of labyrinths inside Joe's brain was the unstoppable desire to create an album that would flow very easily from the speakers, an album which would preferably have songs rather than finger or guitar exercises.
Super Colossal is actually more focused on songwriting rather than shredding or finger breaking - this does not imply not even for a nanosecond that this ain't a technical record - but Joe prefers to tell stories with his music and his six string lover rather than overexpose his profound technical skills.
You can divide the songs into the following categories, in my opinion. The classical heavy/rock Satriani songs in the style of Summer Song , or Back To Shalla Bal like Super Colossal, Redshift Riders and Crowd Chant. The relaxing, cooler, mellow songs like Just Like Lightning, It's So Good, Ten Words, A Cool New Way, The Meaning Of Love, Made Of Tears, Movin' On and A Love Eternal and finally the more experimental ones like One Robot's Dream and Theme From A Strange World.
Super Colossal sounds as the natural offspring of Is There Love In Space? and as the grand, grand child of his post Crystal Planet sonic era. The whole climate here is quite relaxed and someone might moan that there are not so many fast songs here. Joe focuses on a general cool attitude and leaves the overshredding to Steve Vai's and John Petrucci's latest albums. It belongs in the new Satch era, meaning the post Time Machine period since the whole attitude, song structure, even the layouts lead your mind into the new sonic direction Joe chose to follow. The more you will listen to this album the more you will like it, for sure. Maybe one of the best places to listen to this records - as it is obvious for all of Joe's works - is inside a very fast car together with your friends!
There is a natural Rock 'n' Roll attitude found here, even if you are talking about the ballads this album has or the more experimental, technical songs Super Colossal has to offer. Joe unites all his creative force and spiritual imagination under the umbrella of Rock and offers it to us in his usual way. The themes this album deals with are based on the eternal questions about love or life in space, love on earth, traveling through the cosmos and other great stuff like that, which are not often found in other albums or artists in general. Joe manages to maintain his obvious interest in galaxies and the cosmos in general as well as our own interest in music too.
The music itself is warm, inspiring, it overflows with positive energy and optimism even during the saddest songs, giving the listener the necessary catharsis to continue his or her life with more smiles and leave as much sadness as they can behind. In the song Crowd Chant, Joe applies the usual common and response game with the crowd and creates a very unique, almost live, song which will be one of the highlights of his future live performances due to the exhilaration and fun it gives to all the audience! The album could be also used as the perfect background to have a series of serious discussions with many of your friends. Some of Joe's enemies (are there really any Joe Satriani or Sponge Bob enemies? - are there any people who do not like hot, juicy, steaming chocolate filled cakes?) may say that the whole atmosphere is much too relaxing here but after a couple of listenings, they will get to Joe's point at last.
The album was produced by Joe Satriani and Mike Fraser while it was recorded at Studio 21 by Joe himself. Furthermore it was mixed by Mike Fraser at The Armoury.
So, if you consider yourself a brave time traveler, a unique sonic hunter, a music lover, an instrumental addict, a cosmological explorer then do not hesitate, not even for a moment to dig into Super Colossal to find the answers you seek through exploration of your inner self, aided by the power and inspiration of music delivered by a true genius of its kind, the superbly colossal Mr. Joe Satriani himself! Joe, we are utterly expecting your next visit to our place, to sing along the all vivid Crowd Chant with you! Let's go back to our silver board to keep on surfing with the Alien...
- Album Highlights: Super Colossal, Just Like Lightning, Redshift Riders, Ten Words, Movin' On and of course Crowd Chant!