Album Review - Lee Carlson "Essence Of Time"

Lee Carlson is an Instrumental Rock guitarist from Calgary, Alberta. His unique, epic style of composing and playing takes the listeners on an aural adventure. He has been likened to players such as John Petrucci , Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

Born & raised on Vancouver Island, Lee started playing guitar at age 12 taking private lessons and playing in the school band. After graduating, Lee attended Malaspina College for one year where he studied Jazz Theory and Composition. He moved to Vancouver after college and studied composition with music producer David Malecot of Malecot Music Enterprises.

A year later, Lee began teaching guitar lessons and joined the metal band, Acropolis. The band was a great musical outlet, he was with this band for a year and enjoyed many great shows. After Acropolis, Lee joined a band called Friday's Cry, toured Western Canada and recorded 5 albums.

Shortly after moving to Alberta in 2002 he joined Da Capo, a jazz quartet and recorded one live CD. A year passed and Lee moved on to form a heavy rock band called Critical Day. With this band, he enjoyed a host of great shows which included opening for Jars Of Clay, Starfield and Riley Armstrong. He has also studied music business under guitar virtuoso Tom Hess.

As well has having recorded a self titled EP, Lee has recently released his debut solo album, ESSENCE OF TIME. This marks the 8th album to his credit.

Kicking off the album is a straight-up, epic rock track called The Eternal. Lee told me that he really likes the solo section which has a Phrygian Dominant tonality! This song also appears on the compilation album, Guitars From The Shadows. The track is full of great ideas, but stays accessible enough not to make Lee sound like some kind of shred snob. Influences on this track range from the obscure to sounding like Satch himself wrote some sections. The hook is very singable too.

Track 2, For Evermore, is another rock instrumental. “This song kind of wrote itself,” says Lee, who had the basic chord progression and improvised on it until he heard the rest of the song in his head. There is a dramatic change of feel for the solo section, which is a lesson in virtuosic picking.

The title track, Essence Of Time, evolved over a couple of years and was originally written with many alternating time signatures, but Lee decided that it worked better in 4/4. The Steve Vai influence on Lee is most apparent in this track. Fortunately Lee isn’t just another Vai clone and exhibits his own tastes and style while playing on the edge (or is that the ultimate control?). The emotive bridge section creates an interesting contrast to the driving of the rest of the song.

Beyond is a lesson in song writing and imagination. “I wanted to write a song that just cycled the same chord progression from start to finish, but each section would have a different interpretation, so to speak, of the progression”, says Lee. Well, apparently, Lee has a bottomless bag of tricks. The solo on this song is my favourite part of the entire album.

The last track, Smooth Waters, is “Your basic guitar ballad”, according to Lee. However, Lee has definitely taken the time to acquire full control of that mystical 6-stringed beast called the electric guitar, and I can assure you that there is nothing basic about this track.

All-in-all, this is a great album for those who enjoy a good amount of feel/emotion on their shred records. You’ll be seeing and hearing more of Lee Carlson, that’s for sure.

http://www.leecarlsonmusic.com/

Finger Picking Fundamentals

…and now for something completely different.

Right, so we usually feature news, reviews and interviews concerning the use of many notes, played at incredible speed, to convey emotions, (in other words, this place is all about shredding your face off). Not today...

Elmore Music has put together a fantastic guide to Finger Picking. Now before you go back to practicing your arpeggio runs at 250bpm, go here and have a look at Finger Picking Fundamentals.

If you’ve always wanted to learn finger picking on your guitar but didn’t know how or simply failed in an attempt to 'Finger Picking Fundamentals' is surely the quickest way to get yourself in the Tommy Emmanuel/Andy McKee vibe.

The course aims to equip you with the tools necessary to perfect the technique of finger picking so you won’t be tearing your hair out with frustration during the learning process.

An advantage of finger picking notes is that it allows you to play multiple parts of a piece of music, instead of just the blazing solo and crushing riffs.

Imagine being able to play the bass, harmony, melody, and percussion all on your own. You’ll never have to deal with tardy, prima donna band mates ever again.

'Finger Picking Fundamentals' follows a step-by-step instructions, tabs, audio and video layout, to make the learning process simple and easy for everyone.

Topics covered include Scale application, Groove style slap percussion, Groove style finger strumming, Groove style finger muting, Groove style popping, Harp scales, Arpeggio fingerings, Adding the 4th finger, Slap harmonics, Harmonic exercises, Chord harmonics exercises, Harp harmonics exercises, Examples of guitar percussion, Maj, min, dom, 5432 form, Maj, min, dom, 6432 form, and a complete and original song to learn using all your new skills.

There are a lot of great ideas in the Finger Picking Fundamentals course, even for us shred heads. Check it out.

Album Review - Jeff Treadwell "Nightmare"

Jeff Treadwell is a professional guitarist, composer, and instructor from the Chicagoland area. His musical style ranges from progressive rock to extreme metal, although he is best known for his ability to write extremely dark and heavy music. While primarily self taught, Jeff has studied guitar with fellow Chicago guitarist Zack Uidl to further improve his musical skills. He is co-authoring a book with Zack on Vibrato, which will be released soon.

Jeff has recently released his first solo album "Nightmare" in September of 2008. It's dark, it's gloomy and you probably won't make it out alive.

Let’s look at the tracks:

The first track, “Prologue”, starts off with a haunting orchestral intro which flows into an eerie arpeggiated acoustic guitar section. A crushing 7 string riff enters at 1:21, introducing the main guitar theme. A quick guitar solo cleaves the heavy section in two, like the Grim Reaper claiming another soul, while the augmented arpeggios in the outro serve to further freak the listener out.

The second track, “Walk through the graveyard”, revisits the orchestral theme from the first track, but this time it’s all creepy clean guitars. The songs tempo is somber and the guitar melodies are sorrowful and scary. The epic solo starts off in the neoclassical realm, but shifts into more accessible rock style-phrasing. The song then quiets down before another climax of spine tingling shredding, and explosive swept arpeggios.

“Nightmare”, the third track, certainly lives up to its name. Starting off with the freakiest clean riff on the album, and moving to a nightmarish verse section, I nearly checked under my bed for monsters. The main theme is held down by a scary synth motif which is the canvas for Jeff’s terrifying solo’s and trademark, wide vibrato. I would peg this track as the single on the album.

“No More Will” starts out with some counter point guitar melodies (jazz metal anyone?) while the middle section sees Jeff sticking to tried and tested soloing strategies before the song emerges in a hell-fire of furious chugging guitar riffs, multiple guitar harmonized leads, and a huge guitar solo.

Track five, “Silent”, is lighter (though not brighter) than any of the preceding tracks. It is lead by tragic clean guitar riffs and a heart-wrenching solo. At 4:00 the song build up and introduces my favourite riff on the record, followed by another emotion filled solo.

“Intermission” comes out of left-field with a dreamy clean guitar intro and some bluesy leads. But just as you think that light has broken the darkness, a piano section straight out of the most frightening horror movie you ever saw, sends you right back into the nightmare.

The seventh track, “The Ferryman”, is all about the gloomy acoustic guitars and haunting sweeps which fade in and out like ghostly apparitions. A dramatic guitar solo and three-part harmony setup another horrifyingly aggressive, demon slaying shred-fest.

Track eight, “The Gatekeeper”, is the longest and most dynamic track on the album. Starting with a dark acoustic riff (which appears many times later in the track) and building into the heaviest section of the album, this track goes through several moods ranging from furious outburst to silent rage. The odd time signature at 3:35 is not for the skittish or faint-hearted, and neither is the shredfest at 3:45, where Jeff and guest soloist Zack Uidl duel it out. The song lets-up for a second, before the rising-up of a huge melodic section which includes another solo by Zack at 8:47.

The final track is called, “Halloween”, because Jeff wrote the whole song on Halloween of last year. The track is huge, crushing, and as spooky as the rest of the album. In this track, Jeff really lets loose the ferocity of his playing with blazing riffs and scorching licks, ending the album on a high.

Jeff’s playing is full of fire and passion. His lead guitar tone, control and phrasing is often far beyond that of a debut record. Terrifying.

www.jefftreadwell.com

Blog Poll

Hey guys, anyone checking the blog? I so, could you please head over to the SA Forums and let us know what you htink of the blog and how it could be improved?

http://www.shredacademy.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1297&pid=10613&st=0&#entry10613

Thanks. Adji

A Moments Silence For One Of The Greatest

Today -September 26th - is the five year anniversary of the death of the great musician Shawn Lane. For those not familliar with his playing (and why not?) Shawn was a fantastic guitarist (still hailed as one of the greatest both musically and definitly technically) in the Fusion realm. He was also a fantastic keyboard/piano player and those who met him say a great and humble guy.
May he rest in peace.

If your not familliar with Shawn i highly reccommend the Powers Of Ten album although its a little hard to source down nowadays but well worth it if you can find it.
You can find Shawn's official site (run by his mother and nephew) here - www.shawnlane.com

Here is a fantastic tribute video to mark the occassion by a guy known over the net as WillJay. WillJay is probbly the biggest Shawn Lane fan and is fighting to help keep his memory alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CZLfzrmsQI

Another Bellas Album!

George Bellas is hard at work on his latest album, Step Into The Future, which is scheduled for a January 2009 release. Does this man ever stop working!?
The album will feature Marco Minnemann on drums and what is special about this album, which is now in the final stages of mixing and mastering, is that on the album there is only one track, but its 76 mins long!

Here is the word from the official Bellas site. - www.georgebellas.com

The new album "Step Into The Future" by George Bellas is complete and in the final stages of production. This new album is the most massive body of music that George will have ever released. It was composed in an intense frenzy of inspiration between December 9th, 2007 and January 12th, 2008. The writing process took place every single day with George frantically composing note by note with only paper and pencil. The album once again stretches the boundaries of the composer's prolific abilities and utilizes compositional elements not found on any of his other releases.
"Step Into The Future" is ultra-modern and progressive in style and very elegantly displays a vast dynamic range of sound. There are melodies on the album that are pin-drop soft, subdued and spine-shivering, and then there are moments of bombastic explosiveness that reveal an entirely different madman type character. There is a big surprise to the album that will be revealed just prior to it's release and will instantly set it apart from the current trend.


AND ON A PERSONAL NOTE...
Sorry i havent been bringing much news to the blog recently, ive had a lot of going ons in my life to contend with but i feel osme of the other guys have held the fort well so thanks to the rest of the blog team.

Album Review - Dave Cardwell "Gone"

Machine gun guitarist and prolific recording artist, Dave Cardwell, hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. His first three albums were released in 2006 and 2007 under the bandname Raise the Shield, and in the summer of 2007, Dave teamed up with Chicago shred master, Zack Uidl, to release the album “Recollection” in early 2008, as Thoughts Betrayed.

Dave released his solo album, “Gone”, in the summer of 2008, and is currently working on several album projects to be released in late 2008 and early 2009.

While having a well-stocked arsenal of uber-shred techniques, Dave’s albums are never a vehicle for his guitar chops alone. Instead, he exhibits his plethora of talents, including mature songwriting skills, a strong production technique, and decent vocals.

Having listened to Dave as Raise the Shield, I fully expected the songs on “Gone” to be shred-heavy and packed full of Dave’s old-school and modern thrash metal influences, and I wasn’t disappointed.

“Gone” is made up of 11 tracks crammed with all the double kick drums, razor-sharp rhythm guitars, and lightning-quick solos you could shake a pointy headstock at.

What I liked about each track:

Get Me Fired: Massive intro to the album, evil chorus vocals, super cool solos, and excellent old-school ending.

Ages: Head-banging riffs, top-class vocal vibrato, and face-melting solo.

Maya: Very European-sounding atmospheric bridge with a nice guitar and keyboard harmonized outro solo.

Fate: More fantastic harmonized guitar and keyboard.

Echoes: Crazy Rusty Cooley-inspired intro, and driving rhythm section.

Liars: Great neo-classical-inspired intro and outro.

City: A great showcasing of Dave’s ability to produce modern metal mayhem.

Gone: Great vocals and harmonized solo intro, and possibly the album’s single.

Jade: Old school heaviness, twisted riffs, and a blazing solo.

Why: Scary piano intro and awesome breakdowns.

Stranger: Heaviest vocals on the album, with haunting keys in the background.

“Gone” is a great album for both shredders as well as metal fans who don’t play music themselves. In short, get it.

www.cardwellmusic.com