PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Adrian Weiss is an American guitarist who lives in Germany. He’s released 7 albums over the years either as a solo artist or with bands including his band Forces at work.
What is it about guitarists that makes them so predictable? A guitarist releases a solo album – at which point its a fairly safe bet to assume its an instrumental – wouldnt want vocals distracting attention away from their brilliant guitar work now would we. While it may be understandable in some ways, it’s also commercial suicide. Ask anyone to name their favourite songs and they can tell you a long list. Ask them to name say 5 instrumental tracks and almost everyone would struggle – I doubt many people could name more than 1 (if any), and there lies the problem – instrumentals just arent as popular commercially, and as a rule are less memorable. In contrast where a guitarist has done a solo album and recruited a vocalist then I find the album appeals to far more people.
Ok so it’s never going to be as big a success as an album with vocals to turn the instrumentals into full blown songs, but what we have here is an excellent instrumental album – it’s got plenty of power and heaviness as well as fast intricate guitar work. As instrumental albums go, this really is a good one and guitar lovers will love it, but for most music fans its an album that while they’d enjoy hearing it they’re unlikely to want to go out and buy it.
If you like instrumental albums then this is a great album that you really should listen to.
Rating: 7/10
“Big time is out now via Audiomagnet records
Track listing:
1. Summer drive
2. Easy on the ice
3. Tough luck
4. Egyptian inscription
5. Desert sanctuary
6. Estimated time of arrival
7. Liquid pension embellishment
8. Bright awakening
9. Morning run
10. Disappear
11. The progressive society
