This instrumental set has a lot of blues edge to it. Not everything fits tightly under that umbrella, though. There are things that lean toward metal and others toward prog rock. The guitar playing is great, but that’s to be expected. I like this set quite a bit, really.
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Track by Track Review
Mustang Shuffle
Hard rocking music with a classic edge, this is energetic. It’s also a lot of fun. It’s not far removed from the kind of thing Pat Travers used to do in the 1970s. The guitar soloing has a tendency to get a bit more technical than that, though.
Now's the Time There is a bit of a soaring space rock kind of vibe here. Overall, it’s closer to some killer fusion territory. This thing even leans toward both metal and prog, though.
Faith This lands closer to mainstream rock music. It’s still got some great instrumental work for sure. There is a great drop back to mellower territory, too.
Slam An energetic jam, this takes us closer to fusion territory again. It’s a real screaming hot tune. There is some killer bass work and the instrumental work later in the cut really does land into the realm of pure fusion.
La Grange This instrumental take on the old ZZ Top tune works really well. It’s actually one of my favorites here.
Looking Back Not a big surprise, this is more like the kind of thing you might expect from Joe Satriani. It’s a cool mainstream rock instrumental.
Aerial Vision The title track doesn’t break a lot of new ground. It does tend to have mainstream rock, jam band sounds, southern rock and fusion all built into it, though.
The Dark Dream This gets pretty creative. It leans toward progressive rock and fusion for sure. It’s another great cut. This set is showing no signs of letting up or feeling redundant by this point.
Calling Out Here we get more of a straightahead rocker. There is a bit of a blues element at play here, too. It’s one of the more mainstream cuts on the disc. That said, it’s still got some fusion in the mix.
A Million Miles Gone If the whole album were like this, it would land under progressive rock. This thing is a magnum opus. It starts in mellow territory, but sets out through a series of shifts and changes. At times it lands close to heavy metal. At other times it leans close to fusion. This never fails to astound or impress, though. It’s a killer jam and a great way to close the set.