Woo.. got my hands on the new Joe Satriani CD. Its cool. The typical Joe Satriani sound, nothing much changes. But my initial impression is that Engines of Creation is a better album than this new one - Super Colossal. I thought Crystal Planet is Joe Satriani's best album, until I heard Engines of Creation. So, Super Colossal is good, but cannot beat the Engines album. I havent read the reviews of any of these, but I find Engines to be his best. I have seen that many of my choices do not match with the reviews in terms of rock. Def Leppards Slang album was trashed, but I liked it.

For those who think Joe Satriani is a western classical singer/musician like Yanni or Pavarotti, No. Most of the blogs I have visited mention western classical musicians like these or classical singers(who go aaa-aaaaa with harmonium or sitar), sufi music, qawwalis or ghazals (all of which I dont like, and sometimes find that they are a cure for insomnia). Nobody seems to listen to mainstream music it seems. Or most bloggers listen to classical. Or that I end up at wrong blogs. Joe Satriani is a hard rock musician and wields the six-string. Amazing rock instrumentals, this guy plays. There are some musicians, whom you listen to and you can build pictures in your mind. Satriani is like that. Another such band would be Pink Floyd. But it takes time to get to listen to Pink Floyd. It takes time to grow on you. Not many appreciate Floyd in their fist sampling.

Again, Metallica diverted from their thrash metal sound in Load, and was criticized, but I found it to be one of their best. Actually, the fans were expecting thrash metal from them, but Load has a slower and mellowed down sound. So the fans did not really like it. The point to note is that most of them were thrash metal fans and so they would not really like it. Say, I am a rock fan , but if Metallica sing rap in their next album, I would also not like it. Now, to many, it matters whether it is heavy and fast like Metallica was in their pre-Black days or it is slow like Load. To me , it really doesnt , because I listen to many other slower rock stuff too.

And yeah, rock sounds too good on Altec Lansing speakers. Amazing speakers. Well, ok, amazing budget speakers. Its the best stuff you can get for the money you spend. Value for money it is. Nothing beats Bose speakers, of course :) , but 25000 odd rupees ??! Cant afford this one right now, but will soon have one, hopefully.. (dreaming away).