Lelio Padovani
Unknown Evolution
2.9
Where to start with this. Lelio Padovani is one of those guitar gurus that have set out to create his musical masterpiece. I can’t really pick out anything on his website as it’s in another language, but I’m guessing he played all the instruments on Unknown Evolution, or if nothing else, all the guitars with possibly programmed drums. The drums are of course simple, with the guitars maintaining the spotlight the entire way through. There’s a mixture of clean and distorted parts throughout the length of Unknown Evolution. The music seems to be rooted in the classical nature and flows rather well, but there’s one problem. It’s boring as hell. I could stand maybe two or three songs, but then it would just start to get agonizing to listen to the remainder of the album. There were moments that almost reminded me of “elevator music”, much like the song “Reflections.” Some of this reminded me of music I should hear when I walk into Nordstrom’s department store, not what I should be sitting around and listening to in my free time. One could possibly argue, “Hey, maybe this jerk just doesn’t enjoy passive music,” but that’s hardly the case. I enjoy Opeth’s Damnation and Porcupine Tree material just as much as I do Dying Fetus’ Stop at Nothing. A lot of this stuff dragged me back to the 80’s too, with the sense of that “epic-ballad-solo”. Here’s an example of each song: insert basic drum pattern here, insert basic bass line here, throw in founding rhythm guitar, and layer it with long solo/lead over the entire thing. If this is the type of stuff you dig, then maybe you should look into Lelio Padovani’s Unknown Evolution for some laid back music. But if you’re like me and you find this type of expression all too boring, don’t even bother with this.
