Fireworks Magazine – New Guitar Talent Special

“Full Circle” is the debut album from Mike Campese who played with the excellent band Jekyll and Hyde. This album is filled with great instrumental and vocal songs that fans of Malmsteen should enjoy. The songs offer different guitar tones and textures like “Touch the Sky’ and “Torches” for example. The former relies on jazzy/bluesy melodies a la Eric Johnson whilst the latter is a really strong instrumental that is beautifully performed and remids me of Steve Stevens and Bernt Steidel. Mike keeps the flow of the song just right and it’s played on acoustic guitar, Mike dabbles up and down the neck of his instrument making for a brilliant well thought out piece of music. “Dark Aqua” is a straight ahead melodic rocker with neo-classical phrasing in the vein of Impellitteri and Jason Becker, and on this track we get to hear Mike singing for the first time, his voice having a bluesy edge similar to say Jeff Healey or Devin Townsend. The song could have been lifted off Steve Vai’s “Sex and Religion” album, and is performed well, offering subtle changes during the song and is on of the best songs on the album. “Happy Snow” is also a very strong song with lots of character and hot guitar ditty’s, “Burgundy Mist” is a slower bluesy number, reminding me of Eric Johnson, Gary Moore and Jeff Healey, with great vocals from Mike whilst “Scatterbrain” rocks things up and is a Richie Kotzen inspired rocker that is quite bizarre and experimental in structure. “Africa” is short but huge studio instrumental. This song draws it’s inspirations from African sound effects etc. It’s really powerful but as I said it’s very short and I would love to hear a much longer version of the song. Next up is a wonderful ballad called “Angel” that gets Mike pushing his voice, this is followed by “Velvet” and like “Torches” is an acoustic piece played very fast, again reminding me of Bernt Steidel. “Crash and Burn” is even faster and expertly played, reminding me of Joe Satriani and Yngwie and is pretty cool. “In The Mirror’ is anoter favourite song with cool playing and vocals, “Bourbon St.” is a beautiful slower piece a la Shawn Lane and Michael Lee Firkins whilst “Whole Steppin” I found a little on the weaker side being to jazzy. “Walk Away’ brings in the classical influences mixed with vocals and is a killer song, “Tinted Windows” I found a little to unimpressive and “Rescue Me” is a fun little ditty. That leaves the magical and beautiful “Loralie” which is my favourite song of the whole CD. This song reminds me of Mario Parga’s “Jane” and is just played with amazing passion. This is very encouraging debut. The production is also clear making for an entertaining semi-instrumental and vocal album. Mike has just done some US shows with Yngwie Malmsteen and has also recorded the classic Cacophony song “Concert” for the Jason Becker tribute album.

“I got the opportunity to see Jason live at GIT at one of his first clinics,” says Mike. “I couldn’t believe how technically precise his guitar playing was. I remember that day very clearly. He had a very glowing personality also. When I found out what happened to him I was hurt. I feel honored to be a part of this tribute to Jason. Recording “Concerto” really made me realize more, how much a genius he really was.”