Short Reviews [Claudio Delgift - 2021 - "Moment Of Truth"]

While this is mostly a solo album from Light guitarist Claudio Delgift, who provides guitars, bass, keyboards, drum programming and vocals, he has also brought in friends to help in multiple areas, including drummers, percussionists etc. I also note that Light keyboard player ONE can also be found on one of the tracks. The result of very clever arrangements and additional guests means this never comes across as a solo album but instead feels much more like a band, with huge swathes of sound and some nice guitar solos which are often the lead melody. This album was released after the second Light album, ‘The Miracle of Life’, and although the third Light album has yet to appear this never feels like a stop gap but more like a totally justifiable side project which more than stands on it on. The highlight is undoubtedly ‘The March of The Raged’ which features drummer Pablo Pucheta and orchestral arrangements from Francisco Nogueiras which is bombastic and at times somewhat reminiscent of Mastermind, yet that is followed by the classical guitar piece “Sunny Days” (which has as accompaniment some birdsong which really evokes the feeling of being outside in a sunny glade). Every track is quite different to the rest, bringing in many different classical and South American styles where the time is right, more rocky and progressive at others. It is a mostly instrumental release, and I found on this album I preferred it where there were no vocals just because of what is going on and the way I reacted to the music. Well balanced, nicely diverse, this is certainly worthy of further investigation.