BALLURIO

Artist's Website
Virginia, USA

Warranties and Disclaimers

"The phrase ‘progressive instrumental rock’ really doesn’t do justice to the 2002 CD from VA.-based guitarist Ballurio. As good as his 2000 record, Spider Dance was, in retrospect it was really the stepping stone on the road to the brilliantly conceived In The Machine. Tastefully described as ‘an instrumental exploration of guitar rock from the perspective of melody and orchestrated guitar’, the 2002 release of In The Machine takes Ballurio’s one of a kind approach to progressive, hard rock, instrumental music soaring to new heights. While the guitarist wrote, arranged, performed, programmed, produced, engineered and mixed the nine track In The Machine himself, there’s no shortage of stunning musical ideas and studio craft on hand. Although in the past he’s been compared to greats like Steve Morse, Steve Vai and even Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream, Ballurio delivers the breakthrough CD he promised with the superbly crafted In The Machine." - Robert Silverstein - Twentieth Century Guitar

"Fuzzy guitars, modulated vocals and dancing particles of electronic converge of Keith Ballurio's second CD, In the Machine. This is an edgy, primarily instrumental record that explores one man's musical perspective on modern life and sonically conveys the emotions of everyday existence. Augmenting the music is a captivating CD booklet that includes quotes from the likes of Englishmen Robert Burton and William Shakespeare.

The album opens with the creepy "Critical Mass," six minutes of throbbing, mind-twisting molten metal that crescendos to a symphony of quirky keyboards. That's followed by the dark and rhythmic title track, which gives way to "Swing Shift" -- a less intense but still heavy composition that will challenge your speakers. "Shedding My Skin" is a haunting acoustic piece, and "Metallic Salad" sounds so much like classic Van Halen that you half-expect David Lee Roth to chime in.

Ballurio wrote, arranged, performed, programmed, produced, engineered and mixed all nine tracks on In the Machine -- a phenomenal feat when you consider just how seamless this disc sounds. A sentence in the liner notes states that "all music is specially formulated to be played loud!" So crank this sucker up!" - Michael Popke - Progression Magazine