Guitar Vituosity!
Paul Gilbert is probably one of THE BEST technical guitarists of the last 20 years or so. He is comparable to Messers Vai, Satriani, Moore, Macalpine, Malmsteen, Petrucci, if not better. Its just likely though that some of you may have never been interested in the bloke because of his past history playing melodic AOR type rock for the U.S. masses with Mr.Big. But Mr Big Rocked! Just listen to some of the tracks on the debut or ‘Lean Into It’ especially ‘The Drill Song’ and you’ll get my drift as to how good they were at their best. But before Mr Big, Paul cut his teeth with the brilliant Racer X and again in the late 90’s after departing Mr Big. Throw Billy Sheehan (Mr Big)into the mix and you had a bass player who complemented Paul perfectly and could play just as technical.
The exact same applies to ‘Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar’. Paul has surrounded himself with some ‘kick-ass’ musicians who will take your listening pleasure to the realms of outer space and back again. Songs are technically superb, but also melodic. The sign of a good riff is that you sing along with the band, the same could apply here if you could speak/whistle/diddle along at 350 notes a minute. That doesn’t mean its fast and over the top. Paul plays with a subtlety and passion on songs such as ‘I Cannot Tell A Lie’ throwing in some widdly widdly’s for good measure.
Paul shows his different styles throughout the album, jazz/funk on ‘Bronx 1971’and ‘Bultaco Saturno’, frighteningly fast on ‘Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar’, ‘Eudaimonia Overture’ and ‘The Rhino’, even oriental sounding on ‘Suite Modale’. He even covers an Elvis Costello / Burt Bacharach number ‘ I still Have That Other Girl’. The album finishes on a high with the bluesy ‘Paul vs Godzilla’. I can smell the smoke billowing from the frets as I listen to it
His rhythm section is as good as any that I can compare to. Pulsing Bass from Mike Szuter, Rod Morgenstein type drumming from Jeff Bowders, and wonderful piano/key fills courtesy of Emi Gilbert (Pauls wife). If this is the band Paul is bring across to Blighty in support of Joe Satriani then it will be truly something to behold
I have nothing but the utmost respect for Paul Gilbert. Revered by fellow guitarists, its about time some of us normal folk loved him too.
If you want to learn how to play the guitar and become one of the best exponents of alternate picking, string skipping and general guitar shreddery then this is definitely not for you. The chances are you’ll be put off, such is the mastery of the bloke. One for the Air Guitar masses methinks.
File alongside Vai’s ‘Passion and Warfare’. Its that good.