The long awaited Hardbite II, from Australian-based guitarist Endel Rivers is another all-instrumental, live-in-the-studio collection of progressive fusion/rock. Rivers, born in Estonia under Soviet rule, set himself the challenge to create and bring forth a new color into the world's progressive and jazz-rock scene. Like "Hardbite", the CD features Glenn Roche on drums and Evan Harris on bass, the group gelling as a unit like never before. As reviewer John Patterson sums up, "Rivers' playing integrates some speedy runs, gutsy, well-placed phrasings, interesting harmonization and accessible themes that provide a gravity that the music revolves - musical ideas executed with a driving vision.
