Manic instrumental metal riffage.
John 5's new third album isn't really a departure from the previous two in that it's purely instrumental and acts like a showcase for his guitar skills. As well as playing these days in Rob Zombie's backing band (since leaving Marilyn Manson's band), John 5 has been working on his own brand of instrumental metal albums. On this one he's managed to rope in a few of his guitar playing buddies on some tracks; Joe Satriani makes an appearance on 'The Werewolf of Westeria', Jim Root (Slipknot) plays on 'Black Widow Of La Porte', Piggy D and Tommy Clufetos (band mates from Rob Zombies backing band) provide backing. The added famous names might add interest for some, but individually they don't really manage to add much of a distinctive edge to the tracks they feature on.
On paper this album might sound like it could be an interesting prospect, unfortunately in practice it's only really listenable in short bursts; basically the whole thing feels like it consists of one extended guitar solo, so it doesn't work for more than a few tracks before it becomes incredibly boring. The main problem is, without any real tunes to grab on to it's very hard to tell any of the tracks apart - they just meld together with no discernable difference between them, and while the guitar work is admittedly very impressive and the first couple of tracks are interesting because of that alone – it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
The issue with the record isn't that it's instrumental, because there are plenty of brilliant heavy instrumental albums out there; it's that there aren't any hooks or catchy riffs, just a shed load of twiddling. It really feels like everything but the guitars is an afterthought; obviously, this being an instrumental album, there are no vocals, but even something as crucial as the drumming is reduced to a simple beat that seems to stay the same for every track. Even the two cover versions 'Welcome To The Jungle' and 'Young Thing' are virtually unrecognisable because the tunes are all but gone, replaced only with much riffing over the basic chords with the odd snippet of the tune occasionally breaking through – in fact on first listen I only realised what 'Welcome To The Jungle' was when the track was already half way through. Pretty disappointing.