Self-taught Italian multi-talented guitarist Leo Viridi has released his second solo album "The World Keeps Turning" earlier in December but this time it's only a 4 tack EP instead of a full-length. His debut solo album "LV1" released just over a year ago featured many members across the progressive and metal world including personnel from FIREWIND, MUTINY WITHIN, MEGADETH and DREAM THEATER such as brothers drummer Shawn and guitarist Glen Drover, keyboardist Derek Sherinian, singer Henning Basse and female singer of Irish hard rock band DISSENSION RISING. Despite the fact that this was a "guitarist" album, I was surprised to hear a coherent mix of styles and actual "songs", not simply avenues to show off a guitarist's skill. Welcome to those as a guitarist myself, my album collection is full of guitar virtuosos like JOE SATRIANI, MARCO SFOGLI, and JOHN PETRUCCI's only two solo albums. Needless to say, I dug it, maybe because it defied my expectations of what a solo album could achieve and I was eager to dive into his new work.

Viridi takes a further step into a progressive direction on "The World Keeps Turning" and the added detail possibly was cause for a shorter track length as longer songs are harder and timelier to produce. Unfortunately, he is only working with one of the musicians from his previous album, only Henning Basse - Ex-FIREWIND vocalist - has stuck around to provide words to Viridi's music. Production is once again handled by Devin Mysyk, a great guitarist in his own right as he contributed a guitar solo on "The Belligerent Dr. Ink" from Viridi's last album. Viridi handles all the other instruments, presumably, with guitar, bass and even some keyboard work as well as handling the lyrics as well. The EP is meant to be a concept album, exploring the meaning of life and earth, treading mainly in the metal waters but with extended track times and some instrumental sections, it has stronger hints of progressive than his last outing.

This time around there is less noodling and more focus on building soundscapes, textures and overall feel to the pieces. The production, unfortunately has not improved much and the muddy and muffling of some instruments, especially the vocals, detracts from what could be a decent collection of ideas. The extensions and elongated passages of songs are not helping either. While the riffs are creative and only rarely a little bland, the overly repetitious nature does little to elevate the compositions. The lyrics are not all that interesting either, jumping between bland or overly melodramatic. The centerpiece of the whole album and longest track, "The World Keeps Turning" could have easily fallen in the 4-5 minute average of the other three songs had a producer taken a stronger hold on editing out much of the overused passages. "Untold Millions" is probably the one favorite I have. It gets into some SABBATH heaviness and has the best vocal harmonies of the album. I was hoping for more virtuosic content though and maybe a step up in production. There just doesn't seem to be as much energy put in and fans may do well to just stick with "LV1" until he comes out with another full-length.