JOE MATERA / TERRA FIRMA (2013)

Joe Matera is an Australian guitarist and has already a 20-plus career on his shoulders! This guitar-wizard has released an acoustic effort, "Travellin' West" in 2010 and the next one, "Slave To The Fingers" (EP), in 2012 has gained some really solid reviews.

It was a well-crafted album that included well-crafted songs and showed the abilities of this so talented musician. In 2012, Matera was back with a new record, "Creature Of Habit" and again this was a very interesting release with great arrangements, superb guitar work and very good melodies. The album included also a vocal track that was just brilliant.

So, nowadays, this so talented musician is releasing his brand new effort which is entitled "Terra Firma". All songs here are written by Joe Matera, who is responsible also for the production along with James Strickler, and the line-up consists of Joe Matera on guitars lead and backing vocals, James Strickler on bass/drums, Janos Krusenbaum on keyoboards (piano on ‘Brick By Brick’ ), Pete Lincoln (bass on ‘Shining Star’ and ‘Shining Star – Acoustic’) and Martin Bullard (keyboards on ‘Shining Star –Acoustic’).

After the short but brilliant intro, "Intro III", the album kicks-off with the groovy tune of "Terra Firma". This is a feel-good instrumental track that features a sweet melody and some really inspired guitar lines by Matera. "Shining Star" is a vocal song and it is just what I expected of Joe!! A brilliant pop-rocker, Beatles-esque, I would dare to say,  with a nice mid-tempo rhythm and a memorable chorus line to whistle it for days. In the interview that I did two years ago with Joe, I said to him that he have to try more vocals on his works 'cause he just have such a good voice!! Next, "Brick By Brick" is a slower acoustic tune filled with some sweet piano lines by Janos Krusenbaum while in "Reverie" we have a very good bluesier song. "Tell Me Why" features again Joe Matera on lead vocals and it's again one of the album's highlights. A darker vibe, very good performances, a huge guitar solo and overall great arrangements in this hell of a track!!! "Night Flight" and "Hit The Ground Running" are both very good samples of Joe Matera's guitar playing while the album closes with an acoustic version of "Shining Star" which is really good.

Overall, this is a very interesting release from Joe Matera. As I already said above, Matera is a very talented musician and that's a thing that reflects in his music. All of the songs above are well-written, well-performed and the guitar work is taking the whole project into a higher level. Well done my friend!!
Heavy Paradise's Rating : 8,5/10

Track List :
Intro III  (0:44)
Terra Firma  (4:02)
Shining Star   (3:30)
Brick By Brick  (3:49)
Reverie    (3:23)
Tell Me Why  (4:25)
Night Flight   (4:33)
Hit The Ground Running  (3:27)
Shining Star - Acoustic (3:25)