It's been a good few weeks for great instrumental music with Brett Garsed and Guthrie Govan releasing new things, but right now I'm digging the new Chris Brooks opus - it's one that I and many other fans helped him finish by pledging on a fundraiser site. If Govan, Petrucci, Vinnie Moore, Garsed and Neal Schon are on your fave guitarists list, there's a strong chance you'll love The Axis of All Things. There's more maturity and groove than Brooks' debut and a real band. Here's the review I posted on another forum:
Overall: This is a brilliant album! There's no reason why every last person on the forum wouldn't dig something about it. It has equal amounts of feel, taste, amazing songs and delivered with skill by a world class player.
1. Prelude: Starts with a beautiful jam to set a really nice mood, then comes in with this classical theme, arranged for maybe 6 or 7 guitars, bass and drums and it makes me wanna salute something, I don't know what!
2. The Axis of All Things: starts with this cool circular arpeggio thing and becomes a rocking song with a mixolydian tonality that conjures a little Vai, only his execution is more like a mid gain fusion rock guitar player. The solo is fire-breathing and tasty, giving Kryptica a run for its money and beating it with maturity.
3. Transfiguration: I'm not a total jazz guy, but this song has a flavor of it in the chords of the verse and solo and it oozes "cool". The chorus is big and melodic, and the middle section grooves like the middle section of The Crying Machine or Slippery whatever it is by Govan.
4. Open Doors - happy groovy song with tons of open string things. The rhythm guitar parts are way cool in this song. Not my fave, but there's not a bad song to be heard.
5. Not the day nor the hour: Begins with an eerie arpeggio washed out in reverb, but the reverb slowly disappears and is gone completely by the time the main theme comes in. The theme is shades of Govan and Garsed, played with class and control. It eases into a quite mellow verse-type solo before another chorus hits, and then it's prog central with alternating time signatures, an up tempo fusion solo and lots of different parts before making its way back to the chorus which is in a new key.
6. Wisdom Road: Really nice acoustic piece that reminds me of another fellow Aussie named Michael Dolce. Background ambient guitar melodies make this really nice.
7. Hammer's Heart: Youtube the original by Kee Marcello, then check this out. No offense to the former Europe guitarist, but I think Brooks does the perfect version on this album. Feel, feel, feel, feel, and tone. The simplest structure on the album but a real early favorite of mine.
8. Feeding The Myth: What a cracker of a hard rocking, funky, solo-laden tune! Any track that has Brooks and R. Graham going head-to-head was always going to be worth hearing, but the song itself cranks! A surprising acoustic solo in the break down conjures up memories of Vinnie Moore on "Never been to Barcelona" or "The Tempest" - I think.
9. In and out of dreams: quite a dreamy song in places. Each section is really nice, but let's face it - the highlight is the trading solos with master Brett Garsed. Their playing compliments each other and while you can tell Brooks loves Garsed's style, they bring their own licks. I always rewind the solos in this song. Can't help it.
10. Velvet Claws: A catchy song, and a better mix than the single/video put out last year. Vai-ish melodies, country twanging, and bass a drum solos. So much better than ending on a dreary ballad like a lot of guitar albums these days.
Go and get this album boys. It's win.
www.chrisbrooks.com 
Topic: Chris Brooks "The Axis of All Things" - awesome instrumental stuff (Read 581 times)