InfernalMasquerade.com Review of Chameleon

American guitar virtuoso Mike Campese Is back with his eight studio release titled: “Chameleon”. In this very lively album, Mike shreds through 12 expertly composed tracks that range from Instrumental Rock to full on Progressive Rock!Metal. Being huge fans of virtuosos like John Petrucci, Toby Knapp, Tlmo Tolkkl, etc., we greatly enjoyed Mike’s ability to craft very entertaining songs while showing off his talents.

Opening with the playful “To the 9’s”, Mike Immediately makes a quick Impact with a very catchy and skillful song. While we are usually opposed of the guitar virtuoso that attempts (and falls miserably) to sing, Mike does a decent job In “Chameleon” and “She Burnt the House Down”. Not being Bruce Dickinson or anybody in that range, we are pleased that he didn’t attempt anything out of his range.

As a side note, Mike handled ALL the Instruments In the first four tracks of this release, and a total of eight out of twelve tracks -quite Impressive Indeed. The Progressive side of things starta to show on “Pasta & Bananas”, an Instrumental that features Mike Normandin on drums. Some Rock/Fuslon elements can be heard In the upbeat “Funky Monkey Man”. We are huge suckers for ballad-esque tracks thus “Flashback” sneaked up on us as one of our favorite tracks of this release.

The super fun “Vegas (Playing the Slots)” has to be one of our favorites since It has that certain Improvisational vibe that you get to listen to In the G3 concerta. Before closing this exciting release, we have the shred-tastlc “Kilaues” and the soothing “Meant to be”. Both tracks show very different sides to Mike’s abilities, but an unrivaled ear for writing catchy and effective tracks, rather than just skeletons to fill with ‘only’ highly complex riffs like most shredders.

As whole, “Chameleon” is a very solid release full of catchy and well-crafted tunes that transcend the typical guitar virtuoso release. Mike Campese has tons of experience In the scene and It clearly shows on this excellent release. If you like melodic music filled with Interesting Influences and killer guitar skills, look no further and pick up a copy of this album.