Band:	Livesay
Album:	Awaken The Giant
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	October 2010
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Zero Hour/Awaken The Giant
02. The Burning Times
03. Aphasia
04. Flesh & Blood
05. Tower Of Silence
06. Dance Of The Egyptian King
07. The Agonist

There's something to be said about abuse of power; just because you're an amazing guitarist doesn't mean you need to remind everyone how good you are constantly. Seriously, it's like going to a house party and telling everyone in attendance one-by-one how cool you are. Sure, there might be a few drunk chicks that dig it, but everyone else finds you obnoxious. What is it I'm trying to get at? Frankly I'm not even sure, as I forget what it is I was talking about somewhere around 23 solos ago.

Livesay sound wise are sort of like an American adaptation of Euro power metal, with a more traditional heavy metal & progressive metal twist. An even more accurate description for Awaken The Giant I suppose would be 50 minutes of soloing with some traditional, and power metal parts sprouting up from time to time. Granted, the high focus on instrumentals seem to be an important part of this bands overall sound, and they do it considerably well. It's nice to zone out and get lost in the intense guitar work throughout, but the overuse of this aspect makes it lose all power by the end. Livesay definitely sound like a band for those people out there who live by the code of "more solos = better."

Once again, it's all in the approach. If you're looking for diverse chemistry and variation, it's going to be a little tedious. However, I can see this being a really captivating listen for guitarists above anything else, the same type of people who worship Michael Angelo Batio's Speed Kills, and have John Petrucci instructional DVD's mixed in with their porn collection. There's no doubt this is the angle they were going for, so kudos on a decent job of that.