I've noticed John West being brought up here recently...looks like there are fans of his like myself. I've had this about a month or so. Very good neo-classical metal with decent progressive tendencies. John shows his chameleon like qualities on this release. As it turns out, John Macaluso will be drumming for Emir on some dates in July.
http://www.myspace.com/sevdahmetal
Bosnian guitarist Emir Hot makes a serious statement of intent with his debut release ‘Sevdah Metal’. The album represents something fresh for the metal realm with its blend of melodic, progressive and neo-classical metal styling mixed with traditional Eastern Balkan music with strong influence taken from the ‘Sevdah’ style of Bosnian music (a Bosnian style of blues) to create the unique Emir Hot sound.
Adding more fire to Emir’s impressive song writing and guitar work is the soaring voice of ex Royal Hunt / Artension vocalist John West and drum legend Mike Terrana (Masterplan, ex Malmsteen, Axel Rudi Pell, Artension) whose precise and powerful play add even more energy to the 10 tracks on offer. On their input Emir comments, “John and Mike made it sound live and real. Although the arrangements and the songs are all my ideas, the way they performed on this record definitely put it on a much higher level than I had in mind when I was writing it”.