With Kansas bringing Joe Deninzon into the band in May 2023, plus all the other gigs the man manages, it did take the violinist, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter a few years to get his Stratospheerius bandmates together for their 2024 Impostor! record. It has been well worth the wait.
With Deninzon manning the electric seven-string as well as acoustic violin, viola, chin cello, lead and backing vocals, writing and producing, Michelangelo Quirinale playing guitars, Paul Ranieri bass, Jason Gianni drums, and Bill Hubauer keyboards, here we get a backer’s dozen of bristling layered playing across tunes that quite often have lots to say lyrically.
Trilling keys into big explosive hits and Deninzon’s violin runs bring “Voodoo Vortex (Part II)” to life getting us into this baker’s dozen, leaning on Jean Luc Ponty/Jerry Goodman-inspiration as the tune does. Hubauer’s pretty piano leads us into “Outrage Olympics.” This first song with a lyric, won’t be the first time Deninzon gets into some straight head meaningful gutsy broadsides. I love the clicky weird beat of this one especially.
Opening with some layered whispering of the title and Deninzon’s violin, we get into the heady quick single of the title track. Meanwhile, “Storm Surge,” a wonderfully layered mini epic, gives us some rich acoustic guitar and violin, featuring the legendary pianist, flautist Rachel Flowers, guitarist Fernando Perdomo, and Saga vocalist Michael Sadler, who co-wrote this song with Deninzon and Gianni.
We get the slower “Voodoo Vortex (Part I)” with Deninzon mining Jean Luc Ponty heavily on this one, as well as hitting for a stratosphere (forgive me) all his own on this beautiful instrumental. There is a seriously studied opening piano to the last and longest tune, “Chasing the Dragon.” This meditation on midlife crises, unrealized dreams, and unfulfilled expectations rocks light and shade, heavy riffing, and longer florid passages. Stratospheerius surely shows their chops in all the colors here, with guest vocalist Chloe Lowery of Trans-Siberian Orchestra lending her impressive pipes midway. A wonder ending track to a truly great album where surely none of the players are imposters at being a tight modern prog unit delivering some powerful, accessible tunes.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
