Various Artists - Uncivil Wars (A Tribute To Guns'n'Roses)

*=Staff's pick	World Of Unbelievers* Blinded Eyes Temples Of Gold Evil Within Us Down In Flames Dreamworld From The Edge Of The World Darkest Hour Fallen Angels* Heaven Or Hell In Your (Evil) Dreams Out In The Fields Shadows

Genre	Neoclass. Power Metal	Pete Ahonen	Vocals
Tracks	13	Pete Ahonen	Guitar
Runningtime	63 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Sound Riot Records	Tapsa Pelkonen	Bass
Release	03 Dec. 2004	Jussi Ontero	Drums
Country	Finland	Jussi Ontero	Keyboards
Similar artists	Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica

Ghost Machinery is formed by Pete Ahonen, since he had ideas for songs that didn’t really fit in with Burning Point, where he also is a member. It started as a solo-project but turned into a full band when Tapsa Pelkonen and Jussi Ontero, both from Wildcard, joined forces with Pete.

Ghost Machinery comes with the now typical Finnish sound for power metal, not as distinguished with melodies as Sonata Arctica but still it is power enough all right, complete with a lot of sound from the eighties and with some tasteful touches of neo-classical metal. It is fast and Finnish power metal with symphonic elements from Jussi Ontero that does a good job with the keys, and his playing helps to tie the music together at many times, but often with these symphonic parts it sounds too plastic.

There are bits and pieces that are really great, like the melodic break followed by a speedy guitar in Heaven Or Hell, but seen overall it tends to become far too anonymous to work for me in a genre that is flooded by lots and lots of great bands. To me it sounds like they suffer the same thing as The Storyteller, that also is a comparison musically to Ghost Machinery, not least with the vocals. But they also have a sense for more melodic hard rock and not quite as much power metal like Moahni Moahna and Evil Masquerade when they are heading towards more mid-tempo pacing and not going for the full throttle. But it is the same with those parts as it is with the faster ones: well done and skilled playing, but the end result turns too anonymous.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
5	6	5

Summary
5,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas