Shrapnel Records has issued a compilation album from the really acclaimed and multi - talented musician the mighty Tony Mac Alpine. This album compilation contains some of Mac Alpine's coolest musical testimonies of his 20-year career and contains a variety of emotions pumped through music. To be more precise this CD contains aggressive heavy rock music combined with fusion elements which really point out Tony's incredible technique and sense of melody.
It also has great supporting performances by some of the most well known musicians in progressive and hard rock music in general. In order to have a full image of this album Tony Mac Alpine Collection - The Shrapnel Years, it contains twelve tracks along with liner notes written by Tony himself. To name a few of his most famous music collaborators one might just refer to the name of the guitar titan Steve Vai in order to get an idea about the magnitude of Mac Alpine's musical contribution.
In the 60 minutes and 55 seconds of this compilation you will find yourself surrounded by really special and truly beautiful music. There is diffuse tend for excessive use of neoclassical elements found here, something which is a kind of trademark for Tony Mac Alpine. There are many and continuous rhythm and tempo changes - scale alterations, extensive improvisation - which lead to a massive production of different emotions that surround the listener gradually.
All of the songs here are instrumental - there are in fact many fast and medium speed songs here all baked into Tony's personal audio oven! His skills are really obvious and profound, from the first minutes of this album! I can already hear voices complaining about over complexity and musical talking nineteen to the dozen, but in the end someone manages to see Tony's meaning.
His music could be described mostly as minor based but with extreme complexity and technicality of course. This is of course a first chance for somebody to get acquainted with Mac Alpine's history - and then he or she could possibly dig a bit further at his other records!  Highlights of this album can be considered - amongst the other - the following ones: Wheel Of Fortune,  The Witch And The Priest, Edge Of Insanity,  The Violin Song and Christmas Island.
If you consider yourself as a fan of instrumental - guitar based or not- music the CD has already entered your record collection and will lead to another musical dimension for many many hours of audio pleasure and mind relaxation and exploration.