Constantine was born and raised in Athens, Greece. As a teenager, he grew up musically with bands such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Judas Priest & Exodus. He soon started to evolve more on his study and approach on the guitar by getting influenced by guitar Gods like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman, Michael Romeo & Zakk Wylde.
Over the years, Constantine practiced more and more and took his technique to a higher level from shredding riffs to melodic harmonies, fluid tapping-arpeggio lines, wide vibrato, and melodic pentatonics.
His first step was the album entitled 'Shredcore' that was released in 2010 and nowadays this very talented musician strikes back with album number two entitled "Aftermath". For this record, Constantine achieved to gather an impressive guest of list such as Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Bjorn ''Speed'' Strid (Soilwork), Schmier (Destruction), Apollo Papathanasio (Spiritual Beggars, ex-Firewind) & Chris Clancy (Wearing Scars) and gave to "Aftermath" the meaning of super-project album!
The new opus kicks-off with an instrumental track, "Bushido", that sounds a great appetizer of what's coming-up next. It's one of these shred-till-you-drop tunes that the impressive thing is the high-tech guitar work! Soilwork's shouter appears in "Hellfire Club" and delivers a monster melodic-death tune while in "Press On Regardless" Ralf Scheepers of the amazing Primal Fear kicks-down yet another melodic metal anthem. For me, this track is probably one of the best songs here. Metal to the bone (with a slightly progressive 'touch') with some amazing and melodic guitars and great arrangements.
More straight-forward hard rock rhythms in "Another Day" with Apollo Papathanasio of Spiritual Beggars to steal the show with his extraordinary vocals. The ultra melodic and more melancholic tune of "Holding On Til The End" is just a killer one while "Deliver Us" (again with A. Papathanasio) is very good and features an amazing guitar solo by Constantine. The last two tracks that close this brilliant release, the superb modern "Elegy" and the heavy/aggressive "War And Pain", are both great samples of Constantine's multi-talent.
For sure, Constantine's brand new "Aftermath" is not yet another shred till you die opus. No way; it's complex, beautiful, melodic, technical, heavy, aggressive (and the list goes on and on...) and the sure thing is that will please a wide range of the hard 'n' heavy community.
Rating : 8,8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment