If you like a lot of guitar with your cheese, then chances are you’ll love Chantry, an Italian one-man band featuring Alessandro Monopoli exploding all over this disc’s ten tracks. The first tune “Shine” sounds like it would have been amazing back in the mid ‘70s when Rush and Yes were cranking out epic concept albums, with its slightly majestic pretension and show-off guitar work. But then it becomes clear that this is one of those egomaniacal releases with each subsequent track finding Monopoli shoving every little silly guitar trick and bad production technique into his compositions, whether they fit or not. I can’t tell if the drums on this disc are real or programmed, but they’re so over-the-top and obnoxious that I’m leaning towards programmed. Just listen to “Stars,” “Emergence” or “Flawed Archetype,” and you’ll see what I mean. Dude, are the ridiculous 100 mph kick drums really that necessary? Not at all, but then neither is the majority of this disc. (self-released
