Boals, Mark - Edge Of The World


Year of Release: 2002
Label: Frontiers Records
Catalog Number: FRCD135
Format: CD
Total Time: 62:44:00

Edge Of The World is the third solo release from Mark Boals, one-time vocalist for Yngie Malmsteen and frontman of the progressive supergroup Ring of Fire. Sporting a stellar lineup of guest artists, Edge of the World had a great deal of promise - featuring Tony Macalpine (guitar and keyboards), Erik Norlander (keyboards), Virgil Donati (drums), Jeff Kollman (guitar), Chris Brooks (guitar), Neil Citron (guitar), Vinny Appice (drums), and of course Boals himself (vocals, bass, guitar and keyboards). Somehow, it's not quite lived up to what I thought it'd be.

Very much a glam-rock style of album, Edge Of The World is a blowsy, sometimes disjointed production that left me feeling rather unsated. The songwriting doesn't exactly sound natural, as though the writing process were forced - and the music has a lot of fluff but not much substance. By that, I mean that while there is a hell of a lot of superlative musicianship going on (how could there not be, with the artists that are featured), the music feels empty, strangely sterile. I don't get a lot of emotion out of it and hence the album becomes unexciting. This is despite Boals' soaring, operatic voice which originally made him an item; it fails to enliven music which should, by all rights, be much more stirring, given the subject matter and musicianship. Perhaps this is the fault of the production rather than the writing, I'm not sure.

Still, it does showcase the astonishing technical ability of the musicians, and there are some impressive performances to look out for by all involved. It's just that one could get this just as well by buying an album by Ring of Fire, Planet X, Rocket Scientists or many other projects that the artists have been in. It'd probably be better value for money and much more interesting to listen to, in my opinion.

On the whole, I found Edge Of The World a bit of a disappointment. It would be untrue to call it a bad album - it's not - but it's completely failed to grab me and I can't really get into it. Fans of Boals' prior work may wish to check it out, but this is definitely one to listen to before thinking of buying.

Similar to: Daniele Liverani

[This review originally appeared June 2003 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]
Tracklisting:
Fly / World On Fire / Lady Babylon / Taking Control / Up To You / Between Two Mirrors / Garden Of Pain / Too Late* / Through The Endless Night / Trouble In Paradise / Crossfire / The Criminal / Hold On (To Our Love)

*Bonus for Japan, making total time: 68:58

Musicians:
Mark Boals - vocals, bass, additional keyboards; guitars (3,7,10,12,13)
Erik Norlander - keyboards
Tony Macalpine - guitars (2-4, 6-9, 11), keyboards (4,8,9)
Neil Citron - guitars (5,12)
Jeff Kollman - guitars (10,13)
Chris Brooks - guitars (1)
Vinny Appice - drums (1-3, 5-10, 12, 13)
Virgil Donati - drums (4,11)

Discography:
Mark Boals - Ignition (1998)

Mark Boals - Ring Of Fire (2000)
The Oracle (2001)
Burning Live In Tokyo 2002 (2002)
Mark Boals - Edge Of The World (2002)
Dreamtower (2002)
Lapse Of Reality (2004) Mark Boals - The Chronicles (2011)
Battle Of Leningrad (2014)

Burning Live In Tokyo 2002
(DVD) (2002)

Genre: Melodic Rock-AOR

Origin VA

Added: December 8th 2004
Reviewer: Karyn Hamilton
Score:
Artist website: www.markboalsofficial.com
Hits: 2102
Language: english

  

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