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Well, well! Where
do I begin and where do I end with
this incredible band from Huston Texas.
Let’s just say some compendious
words about the members. The founder
is the guitarist Joel Gregorie who
is a graduate of the Guitar Institute
of Technology and has studied under
people such as Paul Guilbert, Frank
Gambale among others. In 1998 he created
Stride and supported many national
acts including Savatage, Megadeath,
Stratovarious, and Fates Warning to
name a few. Matt Kanzler is on drums
who has also graduated the Percussion
Institute of Technology. Gary Belin
is the singer of the band whose career
begun in 1983! He started by singing
in a band named Silk. The band after
a while scattered and Gary worked
with a lot of people in Huston Scene
here and there until 1989 when he
joined the band. Mike Martin is the
bass player whose career begun when
he was 14 and with a local band named
Crystallize he had the opportunity
to open for great bands such as Lilian
Axe, Crimson Glory, Chastain and others.
At age 17 he joined Helstar who at
the time had changed their name to
Vigilante and started going on tours
with names such as Pantera and Fates
Warning. In the year 1991 Mike stepped
away from the music scene until 2002
when he joined Stride. Finally Rick
Flores is the key man and he has played
for Freddy Fender and the band success.
The year 2001 they
released the CD "Music Machine"
which is all instrumental and has
a wide variety of music influences.
Rock, Metal, Atmosphere all under
the name of Progressive. In 2003 they
released a Christmas CD for fun which
is also instrumental except from one
song. Finally in 2005 next to see
the light of day was this incredible
disc named "Imagine’".
Among 9 songs the two are instrumental
and its total duration is 50.55 minutes.
I won’t bother to find to whose
band their music sounds like since
any influences that exist go through
the prism that is called Stride and
come out in a great result. They are
not tiring at any point and there
are no laps. The production is very
good and gives the band the opportunity
to accent their rich abilities. There
are some great changes on the tempo
and at some point where the melody
enchants and Gary’s amazing
voice draws you away a guitar is whipping
to take over your mind. Wondrous technical
solos by keys and guitar and magical
melodies. I don’t know what
else to say I have my mind set on
this particular CD. There was a day
I listened to it for five times! My
only objection is that I wanted some
songs to last a bit longer. The songs
come to an end and I catch myself
saying, Give me more, Give me more!!!
A real oasis among the mediocrity
that is going on these days. Next
to some great, big bands and ultra
hopeful such as Redemption, Circus
Maximus, Cloudscape, Andromeda. One
more is added and that is "Pride".
Well done dudes I am very proud for
the music I am listening to!!!
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