Reviews

So one of the biggest bands in the world release the long-awaited follow-up to 2003’s unfairly criticised ‘St. Anger’. The critics, fans and industry all seem to have embraced ‘Death Magnetic’ for differing reasons.

When the latest package from Schott arrived containing ‘Improvising Blues Guitar’ at Alloutguitar Towers - and we clocked it was written by John - we all looked forward to diving into this as one thing would be assured: Quality...

The basic structure of the book is that the essential key components of key guitarists from the dawn of Blues are examined - alongside the techniques and harmonic factors they brought to the genre and broken down into chapters (see below) with several musical performances and backing tracks for you to play along to, alongside detailed examination of the concepts, musical examples and loads of relevant chord/scale/arpeggio diagrams as appropriate.

With a player of John’s calibre one would expect the playing examples to be excellent, and they do not disappoint! Whilst all are accurate a few bear extra mentions: his Buddy Guy absolutely nails the mans vibrato; the BB King has a playful lightness of touch, the Robert Cray (a man hard to emulate) is so close... The Freddy King (absolutely required listening for those who wish to delve into Claptons original style) is a text book example of combining Major and Minor pentatonic phrase’s in a cohesive fashion. The Jeff Beck examples really nail that fake slide approach El Becko uses to such effect... I could go on but you get the idea!

For the rockier readers the Eric Johnson study provides a text book example of nailing this highly idiosyncratic player’s style, whilst the Gray Moore example portrays not only the Irish firebrands style to great effect, but also shows licks in their own right that could be from Paul Gilbert’s Pentatonic sequencing vocabulary and Viv Campbell’s speedy pentatonic repeating licks. The Joe Bonamassa example shows the debt he owes to many of the above players whilst showing his own slant on a genre that for many seemed moribund until his recent ascendance to global popularity.

With excellent Jazz blues players such as Larry Carlton and Robben Ford covered in equally comprehensive style as well as slide and ‘modern’ acoustic players covered this is pretty much all that you will ever need to truly nail the Blues!

What better way to test out my new eleven speaker, pro-logic surround sound car stereo, than with the fourth studio album from Iowa’s finest, Slipknot. ‘All Hope Is Gone’ certainly makes for a suitable lyrical template for Slipknot and it proves that they themselves, have plenty of hope musically speaking.

The first thing that my new stereo emphasised to dramatic effect, is the crystal sonic splendour achieved by Slipknot’s acute technical excellence, captured perfectly by producer Dave Fortman and in Colin Richardson’s final mix.

Jas Morris was a new name to all of us until his Guitar Idol entry got through to the Live Final back on June 14th 2008 when he had the unenviable task of opening the show - but one he carried off with considerable flair, panache and skill.

Jas has built up a considerable live reputation in the South and West of the UK (see http://www.morrisbrothersband.com/) so let's see whether his live prowess translates to disc...

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, Extreme really were one of the most promising, original and exciting bands of their generation. They sold over 10 million records and rocked that funky house down every night – well apart from ‘the’ ballad. Now, thirteen years after Extreme started to run out of ideas, they have reformed and released a new studio album.

TNT were arguably one of the greatest melodic rock bands of all time, WESTWORLD was a breath of fresh air at the end of a difficult musical climate and STARBREAKER is unfortunately just above average. I have listened keenly to Starbreaker’s second album, ‘Love’s Dying Wish’ for the last couple of weeks because:

Guitar Idol 2008 brought a collection of hugely gifted guitarists to our attention - and one of those is Gustavo Di Padua. However, Gustavo has offered us much more than just extraordinary fret board ability: he has delivered, in my opinion, the most enjoyable and listenable instrumental rock guitar album since the early 90’s!

Edward Box gives us the most complete review that will find on the new Judas Priest epic - Nostradamus!

It’s strange to think the effect that one record can have on your life. When Judas Priest reunited with Rob Halford to record the album Angel of Retribution, little did I know that it would inspire me to start a band.

It’s been a strange few years for Journey. Firstly legendary singer Steve Perry decides he doesn’t want to tour ever again, leaves and then he is replaced by the very capable Steve Augeri who in turn becomes ‘ill` and is replaced for a tour by Jeff Scott Soto, who does a great job but once in the studio, doesn’t have the ‘Journey sound`.

Edward Box reviews 'MSG – In the Midst of Beauty'...

Last year was a new low in the chequered career of the German genius. His chronic, alcohol fuelled performance at the Derby Rock and Blues Festival was all over You Tube and coming off the back of a decade of patchy albums and bad compilations it seemed like the end of this once legendary player.