out now: Sartori - Dragon's Fire

Sartori

Dragon's Fire

Rockshots Records

28 January 2022

Around the same that I was considering this debut album by Sartori, I had seen that Ted Kirkpatrick, the drummer for Tourniquet, the long-running U.S. band that features drumming prominently, had commented on Facebook: “Drums. When you listen to Tourniquet - any Tourniquet from any era - you never have to wonder whether the drum recording is, in fact, real. Real: as in played by the real drummer, sitting behind a real drum kit, recording the real non-programmed beats and fills at the real speed you are hearing on the final recording. The upcoming new Tourniquet album will be no ex-ception. What you see - and hear - is what you get... I'm continuously honored and humbled by those of you who recognize and appreciate this - rock on!”

I recognized that this Sartori album sounded different, given that, unfortunately, the use of technology to produce recordings with artificial (sampled/programmed) drums and vocals (auto tune, special effects, and other things that are not the work of the vocalist) is very common. With Sartori, the drums do not sound like plastic toys, not lifeless and impotent. That had me wondering and I asked them about it. Guitarist Andy Sartori kindly responded: “The drums are 100% acoustic with no triggers or fixings no programmed drums! No special editings. It's 100% Dino Castano playing his drums that’s all. There are no fixings, just pure playing and a very good equalization. There are no autotuned on the songs; it's just Scott's (Board) voice which is very powerful and the chorus all the harmonies were recorded by Scott's voice, and live me and the other band members do the harmonies. Each song has many harmonies and different guitars doing different things in the background, live I play a little of everything and yet still keep the main characteristic of the song. Basically, I play the whole song and then after that I lay the others, so there's no problem with copying and pasting riffs and other stuff! We do play our instruments, it's that simple!!” The band is hoping that you, the listener, will appreciate the difference on this album.

The bass guitar lines by Rod Viquez are audible and clear, and when they are pair with the big sound of the drums, it makes for an entertaining listening experience. Stylistically, the music is neoclassical shred heavy metal, with melodic singing. There is lots of fast-finger string action. The melodic side of the music comes from the riffs, rhythms and of course the singing. There is also a balance between skill and writing songs, not just shredding for 3-5 minutes straight. Of course, as Sartori himself explained above, in the live setting, the challenge for him is to combine all the guitar work into a live version of the studio recording, and Sartori does not have three guitarists like Iron Maiden, so it must be a creative challenge, the same way that one-guitarist bands like Deep Pur-ple/Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Dio or UFO had to figure it out. In conclusion, the album may be of interest to fans of guitar-prominent traditional heavy metal and classic rock.

SARTORI - Dragon's Fire (OFFICIAL VISUALIZER)

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