Mailbag Questions on Metal’s Latest – Ozzfest

Questions from fellow metal-head and friend, Dean Daco: 

What do you think of Ozzfest being free?  Do you think more kids will go?  Will more bands join the tour now?  How much corporate sponsorship will take over the festival?  Will slightly smaller tours like Dave Mustaine’s Gigantour take off? 

—

I am very curious about the decision to make Ozzfest free.  Is it a desperate move to keep Ozzfest alive or is it the next natural step in the evolution of concert promotions?  After all, the music landscape is continuously changing.  With the Internet’s growing role in the decline of albums sales, concerts seem to be the only area where labels can hedge their losses.  A perfect example is the band, Korn who made a deal with their new label EMI where EMI will receive a percentage of the revenues from the band’s ticket sales. 

As far as the business decision to make Ozzfest free,  I cannot see why the promoters would do that unless they are confident they can recoup their costs from other areas.  They already bleed fans dry with merchandising.  How much higher can they charge for a T-shirt?  If all costs are covered by new corporate sponsorships, who will the sponsors be?  In the past, Jagermeister and Trojan have maintained a steady presence at Ozzfest, but they alone will not be able to carry the financial burden.  

To recoup costs, I see the promoters focusing on two areas – naming rights over Ozzfest and attracting multiple high quality sponsors.  Regarding the former, you could see something like, “ACME Company presents the 2007 Ozzfest or better yet the ”2007 ACMEfest”.   Regarding the latter, attracting high quality sponsors for any business venture is a Herculean task.  All potential sponsors will look at the specific demographic of the Ozzfest.  Who will go and what products will be the most attractive to this particular demographic?  Millions of dollars are spent within corporations to answer this question.  For anyone who has been disgusted with the Big Money/Corporate side of the Ozzfest, this year’s Ozzfest will probably do nothing to ameliorate that feeling.

The problem with Ozzfest is that it has become bloated.  It’s too big.  If you only put one or two heavy metal superstars on the bill, people are not going to sit out on the lawn from 10:00am all the way to 11:00pm just to see their favorite band.  Why put yourself through that kind of torture just to see a shortened set of your favorite band when you can see that band play a full set on their own tour?  This point brings up a key question in the overall health and future of Ozzfest – what is so unique and special about Ozzfest to make fans want to see shortened sets of their favorite bands?  The promoters are counting on you liking every band or a majority of the bands.  In this respect, you are paying to see an all-star group of bands.  There are so many good bands, it makes you overlook the shortened sets.  The overall health of Ozzfest is dependent on whether it attracts this all-star group of bands.  If it fails in this area, making tickets free will not make up for this.  

More and more bands are seeing Ozzfest as an opportunity for exposure.  If they can pay the participation fees and are in the good graces of Sharon Osbourne, then there’s a high chance they can get on the Ozzfest.  I’m not saying whether this is right or wrong, it’s just the reality of the situation.  As a fan, I want to see my favorite bands.  If I see a band that is out of place on the Ozzfest stage, I will probably begin to question the politics of how they got there. 

I like the approach Dave Mustaine has taken with Gigantour.  It’s smaller in scale and the bands are handpicked by Dave himself.  What makes me respect Dave even more is that he wants Gigantour to last after he has retired.  The mainstay of Ozzfest is, of course, Ozzie Osbourne, but watching him anymore is like seeing a hall-of-famer way past his prime.  I wish he could keep playing until he was a hundred years old, but the reality is he shouldn’t.   

T-Ride and Geoff Tyson – Where is he now?

My earliest recollection of T-Ride goes back a ‘92 issue of the defunct guitar publication, “Guitar for the Practicing Musician” which featured an interview with guitarist, Geoff Tyson, and a transcription of the band’s single, “Backdoor Romeo”. The transcriber brought particular attention to the descending blues arpeggio lick in the song’s final seconds.  I remember how impossible it looked to play.  If I saw it again today, I would think the same thing.

Unfortunately, T-Ride was short-lived. They seemed to have vanished almost as soon as they appeared. The only place you could see “Backdoor Romeo” was on Headbanger’s Ball, but it received little to no airplay. There was another video, “Zombies from Hell”, but I do not remember ever seeing it on MTV. I remember expecting a follow-up album, but it never happened. It was almost like they had fallen off the face of the earth. I never heard about them again in the guitar publications except for one last article on Geoff Tyson in an issue of Guitar for the Practicing Musician. If this was the way to go out, the Guitar Gods could not have been kinder. Geoff landed the gig of all gigs, playing for supermodels at a runway show. As the models walked the runway, Geoff stood on a platform playing his guitar. When asked how he remained focused, Geoff replied that it was very difficult (You would have to have superhuman zen-like skills to do something like that).

When talking about former students, Joe Satriani has always praised Geoff’s abilities on the guitar. From viewing The Satch Tapes, Joe’s respect is unquestionable. Of all the students Joe could pick, he chose Geoff Tyson and Steve Vai to be on his video. If that doesn’t saying anything, then nothing does. Joe and Steve have been the mainstays on the G3 Tour since its inception in 1996 and the third guitar slot has been filled by the likes of Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepard, John Petrucci, and Yngwie Malmsteen. When I hear Geoff’s playing on the T-Ride album, without a doubt, he belongs on that stage with Joe and Steve. 

Although the T-Ride album is out of print, you can still see the videos for “Backdoor Romeo” and “Zombies from Hell” at http://www.geofftyson.com/tridevideo.html.  For more audio songs, you can go to the T-Ride myspace fansite which has “Fire It Up”, “I Hunger”, “Heroes and Villains”, and ”You and Your Friend”.  There’s so much going on in T-Ride’s music that I find myself hearing something new with each listen. When I hear the bass and drums on “Fire It Up” and “Heroes and Villains”, Faith No More’s “We Care A Lot?” comes to mind. When I hear Dan Arlie’s voice, I hear a cross between Great White’s Jack Russell and Sebastian Bach. The vocal harmonies are soaring (think Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody) and the guitar rhythms move around in non-standard rock fare. It’s not simple A Bar Chord strumming. The rhythmic attack is very precise and tight. There are nuances in the rhythm playing that remind me of the old Van Halen records. You can hear the energy. It’s alive and spontaneous. Geoff’s leads are abbreviated and concise. He makes his point quickly and efficiently then moves on before the listener can grasp what just happened. This virtuosic side of Geoff Tyson is not the focal point of the song, but rather the exclamation point. Because the songs don’t follow the traditional rock verse-chorus-verse-chorus-lead-chorus format, it can get tricky remembering the arrangements, and it could be this very characteristic that prevented this album from catching on with the listening public. There is no “More Than a Feeling” or “Welcome to the Jungle”. The vocal melodies often weave in and out of different modes which is more suggestive of jazz improvisation than traditional rock. Stratospheric commercial success may have been out of the question, but building up a steady, strong, loyal fan base was not.

Geoff has since gone into the production side of music opening his own production studio in the San Francisco Bay Area, and moving it to the Los Angeles area where he now resides.  In the late 90’s, he played in a band called Snake River Conspiracy, and in 2003, he formed a new group with vocalist Susan Hyatt called Stimulator.  Currently, Geoff is working on a solo album which does not have a set release date, but my best guess is that it will be out later this year. On what the CD will sound like, Geoff writes, “My CD will be a mish-mash of different kinds of styles.  I like the way Pink Floyd mixes up the instrumental pieces with the vocal ones so I am using them as a sort of model for this CD.  Lots of guitar solos, but also keys, sax, and sitar.”

Geoff also has a cool version of Van Halen’s “Mean Street” on his website as well as his myspace page.  Stylistically, it’s a departure from the overdriven guitars of the original and closer to new wave/electronica.  The first solo recalls Pantera’s Planet Caravan (Far Beyond Driven) while the outro is all Geoff.  The tone and phrasing are impeccable.  I highly recommend others to check it out at http://www.geofftyson.com/music/meanstreet.mp3.

Related Links:

http://www.geofftyson.com

http://www.myspace.com/geofftyson

http://www.myspace.com/tridemusic

http://www.stimulatorband.com

Jack Mangan’s Deadpan 32: Shreddin’ with Rusty Cooley Interview

I am a huge fan of Rusty Cooley so when I found this interview on Jack Mangan’s Deadpan podcast, I was like a kid in a candy store. It could easily be a feature interview in Guitar World magazine. Rusty talks about his band Outworld and their new self-titled CD, his influences, his picking technique, his 8-string Conklin guitar and his new signature Rusty Cooley 7-string guitar from Dean Guitars.  Special thanks to Jack Mangan who conducted the original interview. 

Jack Mangan: All right, Deadpan listeners. My guest this week is a guy named Rusty Cooley who if you have not heard of him or seen him play guitar, then you really are missing out. He’s been called, I believe, the seventh faster shredder in the world. He writes a column for Guitar Player Magazine. He plays incredibly fast and incredibly well and (he’s) got his band called Outworld. Thank you very much for being on Deadpan, Rusty.

Rusty Cooley: Thank you very much for having me, man. It’s very cool.

JM: Tell us a little bit about Outworld and what you guys have out there and what you guys are going to be doing in the near future.

RC: All right. Well, Outworld – we’re about to release our debut CD. It will be out on Nov. 13th on Replica Records. Very long, overdue, we’ve been to hell and back basically trying to get this CD out. (We’ve) been through bass players, drummers, and most recently, a singer, believe it or not. We’ve just parted ways with our singer, a guy named Kelly Carpenter. Kelly is actually on the CD that’s going to be released on the 13th, but things just didn’t work out and we had to let him go. We got a new guy on lead vocals, a guy named Carlos Zema. He’s from Brazil. I think he was voted like Brazil’s #1 metal singer. He’s actually in Outworld now. He’s our new lead singer and we’re currently working on new material for our next CD. Also, stylistically, the band is progressive metal. It’s really heavy stuff mixed in with a technical flavor and stuff like that.

JM: Now are you guys going to tour in support of the album?

RC: I don’t know, man. Like I’ve said, we’ve been through a lot of hell. We had to part ways with our singer. Because of this issue, I don’t know if we are going to be doing touring, any touring at all for this disc. The main thing for us is to get in there and get started on the next disc so we can get a better record deal and get out on tour. Sure, we’ll do some dates, but I just don’t think it’s going to be anything extensive, unfortunately.

JM: I see.

RC: I think finally, we have the right lineup. There’s only two original members left in the band now and that’s me and the keyboard player, a guy named Bobby Williamson. Our drummer is Matt (McKenna). He relocated in from Seattle. Our bass player is Shawn Kascak and he actually moved in from Georgia. In case you don’t know them, we’re all in Houston, Texas basically, the Woodlands.

JM: Now you have some tracks on your website. There’re some samples to download and actually I think a full version of one song. Is that Kelly on those tracks or is that a different vocalist?

RC: Kelly is on all of the stuff. Kelly sang on the demo. Kelly sang on the album so all of the stuff is Kelly. If you go to Outworld’s Myspace, you can actually hear a couple of tracks of the new singer singing with his old band. We just kind of put that up there to give the fans a taste of what Carlos’ voice sounds like. One listen to this guy’s voice and you have no doubt that he’s more than a great replacement.

JM: Okay, well, so then there’s a happy ending to the story. It’s a rough story, but at least there’s a happy ending. You got someone really good.

RC: Oh, yeah, man. It’s been rough. We’ve been through three or four drummers and bass players…

JM: Well, best of luck in the future with that. It seems to be that way with bands rotating members, but best of luck in the future with that and I definitely hope you can get on the road sometime soon…

RC: Definitely know that we will. We got, I can’t mention any names right now, but we got interest from some big labels that get their bands out on the road and tours and do it the right way. We’re hard at work on our next material so we can pick up something… (where) they can get us out to a wider audience.

JM: The sound is, you never want to compare yourself to other bands, but you mentioned before that it is progressive metal so you get people thinking like Yngwie Malmsteen, Dream Theater, that kind of thing with a lot of harmonic minor scale.

RC: Uhm. Well, you definitely have the technical playing in there like Yngwie and Dream Theater and stuff like that, but it’s a little bit heavier. It’s more on the heavy side. There’s a bit of neoclassical stuff in there, but the direction we’re going is definitely putting that stuff to the side. I mean, we listen to bands like Lamb of God, and Nevermore, and Unearth, and Soilwork, and Meshuggah and that’s the kind of stuff that I’m into and that’s the direction my writing is going while maintaining the progressive and lots of the shredding elements.

JM: Sure. Nevermore has, I can’t think of the guy’s name off hand, but their guitar player is phenomenal.

RC: Yeah, Jeff Loomis, he’s the guitar player for Nevermore. He’s a buddy of mine – a total shredder, man, and a great guy too.

JM: Yeah, a great riffer, too. One thing about (heavy music) is that people kind of tend to view the players and the music as sort of one-dimensional, but I see your roots. It says in your bio that you were torn between going into the jazz or classical fields.

RC: Yeah, absolutely, when I was in high school when I was younger, I was lucky enough…I’m not really sure how I ended up going in so many directions. One of my first and biggest guitar influences was Randy Rhoads and he always talked about classical music in his interviews and so that got me interested in classical music at an early age and I took theory in high school. Of course, that opened me up to a lot of classical stuff and I was also into jazz and fusion and funk and listened to country guitar players and you know, the whole nine yards. For me, it was just about good music, irregardless of what it was labeled.

JM: Right.

RC: Good music is good music. You know what I’m saying?

JM: Yeah.

RC: I would go from studying jazz to classical to full-out metal and all that stuff so in the end it wasn’t a difficult decision because my roots (are) rock n’ roll. What I’ve tried to do is take all my influences from the different directions and channel them all into what I do. So it is a lot of heavy music, but it’s not a bunch of just meandering around and noodling, you know? Songwriting comes first. It’s about writing a good song and then, putting all the spicy playing in there is the icing on the cake – after the fact, not what the song is based on. And there’s a lot of dynamics into it. The Outworld CD – I think for most the people that are aware of my guitar playing from my instrumental CD, when they hear the Outworld disc, it’s going to be a big change for them because on my instrumental stuff, it was just all about me pushing it as hard as I could push it and just really shredding as much as I could. Outworld is a totally different thing so I’m hoping to gain some more fan base that way, but that’s just the difference in me playing solo stuff and me playing a guitar player in a band. There’re totally different things and I keep them separate.

JM: Will you still put out some solo – Satriani, Vai-esque releases?

RC: You know what? Right now, I’m not planning on it because Outworld, my band, it allows me to do whatever I want so I really don’t have the need to do any outside stuff like guitar albums. Maybe I will someday do another one, but my focus right now is one hundred percent on the band and getting it out there and going to the next level and being successful in the band.

JM: You’ve touched on something that I wanted to bring up. I’ve seen you play. I can’t imagine how there could be six people that were significantly faster.

RC: You know, it’s funny you mentioned that. That’s what everybody says (laughs). Recently, I was featured in Guitar One in an article. I think it was called Return of the Shred or something like that and they actually mentioned in there that I have since moved up the list, but they didn’t mention how far.

JM: (laughs) Okay.

RC: So I am moving up. I don’t know where to. That’s pretty funny.

JM: Now you hear a lot of times, I guess the backlash, which is probably mostly out of people who are jealous that they can never play that fast. You hear this always whenever anyone talks about any shredder whether it be Malmsteen or anyone. They say “Oh well, that’s just noodling. That’s just a million notes per second. That’s not melodic. That’s just noise.” You always hear all this stuff like people say, “how about doing a soulful bend and that kind of stuff?” What’s your reaction to that, and obviously, you’ve said it’s all about the melody. It’s not just about wanking and throwing a thousand notes out per second.

RC: Exactly, it’s not. I think everything has its place and going back to Outworld versus the instrumental stuff, it’s like I said, when I’m doing solo guitar stuff, I mean solo guitar. I think that says enough. It’s about playing radical stuff or whatever you view as solo guitar. My view of instrumental guitar is totally different than Steve Vai or Joe Satriani or any of those guys because when I’m writing instrumental guitar stuff, I want it to be just in-your-face. It’s about the guitar pushing it to the far extreme. One of my classical influences is Niccolò Paganini. He has this set of Caprices – the 24 Caprices for solo violin. It’s just the sickest stuff that’s still like friggin’ untouchable for the most part.

JM: Yeah, the John Williams rendition of number 24. It just blows my mind every time I hear it.

RC: Yeah, and that to me is what I want to do when I’m playing instrumental guitar. Just friggin’…I’m trying to push it to the far extreme limits. When I was growing up, I was listening to guys like Paul Gilbert and Yngwie Malmsteen and I was trying to re-create the feeling for my listeners that I got when I heard Malmsteen and Gilbert and those guys which when I was kid listening to that stuff, it was just like…death-defying, stunt guitar playing, unattainable, how the hell am I ever going to do that kind of playing, you know? That’s what I was trying to do. Just push it as far as I could and make the most extreme guitar record. That was my goal. It wasn’t to play a bunch of memorable, hummable, singable, danceable melodies.

JM: Right.

RC: As long as you know that going into listening to the CD, then you’re going to be all right, but if you’re one of these guys that wants to hear somebody play with the feeling and bending the note, then my disc is definitely not the CD for you. There’s always nay-sayers. Someone’s always got something bad to say. As an artist, you just got to learn to let that roll right off your back, you know? I’m doing what I want to do because that’s the way I like to play. If you sit around and worry about what everybody else is going to think, then you’re never going to write a song because you’re always going to be changing it because you’re going to (think), “oh this guy might say this about it”. You can’t worry. It’s like classical music. Back in the day, I forgot the exact situation, but Mozart was writing something and the emperor told him there was too many notes and he asked him, “which ones would you like me to remove?” It’s in the eye of the beholder. Listen to what you want to hear. That’s how I listen to music. Depending on what I’m in the mood for, I put on that style of music. If I want to hear more laidback stuff, I’m not going to be listening to shred guitar. Pick what you want. If you don’t like it, move on. That’s the big thing. So many people get on your website, get on the Internet, and just blast the crap out of people on why this guy sucks or this guy is better than that guy. It’s like you know what? Everybody’s different. Leave it alone if you don’t like it. Again, listen to something else. It’s amazing to me how many people can sit for hours behind a computer and just badmouth other people. If those guys that were badmouthing other people were at home practicing, then maybe they wouldn’t be so consumed with what everybody else was doing.

JM: Yes. Exactly. Right. Actually, that’s a good segue. I wanted to bring up. I know you do teaching. I know that you are a teacher. Obviously, of course, technique and theory is very critical to developing a style where you can play. I mean anyone – a monkey can play a thousand notes per second, but you’re able to apply your knowledge and theory and make it very listenable and make it very melodic, even with the fast shredding. Tell us a little bit about how to get there and also the practice regimen.

RC: Well, it’s a lot of…there you go. It’s a lot of practice (laughs). Live, eat, sleep, and breathe guitar, man. If you want to get to that level of playing, you have to spend a lot of time doing it. You have to woodshed. You have to spend an equal amount of time on theory and technique and then applying it to creativity which is making music with it. As a guitarist, you need to master technique which is alternate picking, economy picking, sweep picking, tapping, the whole gamut of techniques and you need to understand your chords and theory and how harmony works so that you can apply the technique there and hopefully make some good music with it. I think the two areas combined are very important. One scenario is that you could be a musical genius, but if you don’t have the technique to pull it off, no one’s ever going to be able to tell. So you got to have the chops. You don’t want to be limited by your physical ability. There’s nothing worse.

JM: I would say you’re probably at least three times, maybe four times faster than me so that’s probably me on guitar. If we were to have a race, I think you would beat me by a…

RC: I don’t know man (laughs).

JM: (laughs)

RC: It’s fun. I love to play and I love to play fast. I think it’s just part of who I am. I think it has a lot to do with people’s personalities. I raced motocross for years and bicycles and stuff like that and I like to drive my car fast. It’s just fun. It’s what turns me on when I listen to other guitar players – not just nonsense fast stuff, but good speed. Listen to Paul Gilbert and listen to Malmsteen and Shawn Lane and Allan Holdsworth and guys like that. Those dudes are monster players. They have great technique and can rip it up. And they do it in a great way. It’s just not nonsense rambling of notes with no point or purpose.

JM: Yeah, I agree and I’m not just floating your boat because you’re here. Your stuff is absolutely very melodic. I love that style, like Black Star by Malmsteen. That stuff is just fantastic.

RC: Absolutely. That’s the stuff I grew up on, man. The first time I heard Black Star was on a…I don’t know if you remember this. You’re probably too young. Years ago, Guitar Player magazine used to have this little sound disc that came with it. It wasn’t a disc. It was a little floppy .45. It came with that and a transcription of the song and I’ve got my Guitar Player magazine and ripped out the little floppy record and threw it on my turntable and that was the first thing I heard from Malmsteen off of Rising Force and it was awesome.

JM: Wow.

RC: As a matter-of-fact, that’s the first place I first heard Vai. Vai had one of those little sound pages for the Attitude Song which is totally smokin’. You’re familiar with that, right?

JM: I’ve actually seen him do that live on the G3 Tour. It was nuts.

RC: That’s great stuff, especially when he gets two other guys out there playing with him doing the harmony stuff. All that’s crazy…very innovative playing, man. When Vai came out, there was nobody really like him either, except for Satch who hadn’t actually emerged yet.

JM: Vai just completely blows me away, but Satriani to me is probably how I got into guitar music. I was listening to Joe Satriani before I was playing guitar, actually.

RC: Ah, cool, man.

JM: I would say he was probably my gateway. I still see him every time he comes around. He’s just phenomenal.

RC: Absolutely, man. Me, too. I always try to go out and see those guys. I wish I could have seen G3 with Malmsteen on it. It skipped right by Houston so I didn’t get to see that show. Definitely, all three of those guys, especially Malmsteen are some of my biggest influences – Satch, Vai, Malmsteen, Gilbert, definitely Gilbert, a lot. I love the way he picked. All that early Racer X stuff is just sick.

JM: I wanted to bring that up – just from watching your YouTube stuff and the way you pick. When I tend to hold my pick, this is probably getting technical for some of my non- guitar listeners, I just kind of pinch the pick. Now, you don’t hold it that way. It’s almost not on your thumb at all. It’s almost on your knuckle.

RC: Yeah, right in the joint. You know what I’m saying?

JM: Yeah.

RC: Yeah, it’s definitely nothing I ever set out to do. It’s just something that happened out of necessity. If you noticed when you watch me doing some of the picking, you probably notice that I pick pretty close to the bridge whereas a lot of guitar players don’t pick that close to the bridge. The reason I do this is I play .09 gauge strings and I tune down a half step. The string tension is a little bit looser than it would be with .09’s tuned standard. By picking closer to the bridge, you get more string tension. The closer you get to the neck, the floppier the string gets, right?

JM: Right.

RC: So the closer you get to the bridge, the tighter the tension gets, and the tighter the tension you have, the better for your alternate picking because there’s less give. You get attack. As soon as you pick, you hear the note and there’s no give and it stays really tight and focused so I’ll scooch back when I’m picking really fast and the pick starts to gravitate back there. I don’t know why. It feels really balanced there. I don’t pick everything from there. It just ends up there. It never seems like I can get my hand back far enough.

JM: I saw a video of you sitting down playing and you’re holding it not across your lap, but the way a classical guitar player holds a guitar between their legs. I guess that’s why you hold it in that position then?

RC: For the picking? Well, no actually, I sit in that position for my left hand because I do a lot of wide stretching stuff beyond your diatonic scales, your regular three upper string stuff. I’ll do three-note per string pentatonics and four-note per string scales and that gets to be some pretty wide stretches with your left hand and by keeping the guitar on my left leg, it actually brings the guitar up a little bit closer to me and takes the pressure off my wrist which allows me to stretch easier and more comfortably. That’s actually left hand-based. I can pick the same on either leg, but I definitely can’t play all that crazy stuff with the guitar sitting on my right leg. I just can’t stretch that far. It’s impossible because when your guitar is sitting on your right leg, that brings your wrist down really far. You have to bend your wrist and bring it around. I know it’s kind of hard to really understand what I’m talking about without seeing it, but you can’t do it with the guitar that low. That’s another good point. That’s why I also, when I’m standing up, my guitar is pretty high because the lower the guitar is strung, the more it puts your wrist in a position that will not allow you to stretch your fingers beyond four frets. That’s why most of the guys that play with the guitar strung really low are playing bluesy pentatonic kind of licks. There’s only a couple of guitar players that actually string their guitars pretty low that can do some pretty sick stuff and Paul Gilbert’s one of them. That dude has them really low and he can play the three-note per string pentatonic stuff. I don’t know. It might have something to do with him being like 6’4 or something like that (laughs), but I’m like 5’8 and it ain’t happening.

JM: When you talk about guys who just wear the guitar really low, I think of Hetfield who’s a fantastic rhythm guitar player, often called the best in the world, but he’s not a shredder by any means.

RC: Right. Yeah, that’s true. He’s a really great player, man.

JM: Now before we wrap it up, I did want to ask about something that seems to be unique about you. I haven’t really seen any other guys outside of jazz use the 8-string guitar with the slanted frets. Tell us a little about that.

RC: Yeah. That guitar is my Conklin 8-string and that guitar is strung high A to low B. The fretboard is what we call a multi-scale fretboard. The reason you have that is because of the high A string. Now, you understand what I mean by multi-scale?

JM: No, actually. Can you tell us?

RC: There’s generally two standard scale lengths and I’m not positive on this, but what I think it is, you measure from the nut to the bridge and from the nut to the bridge, you have a Fender scale which is 25 ½ and then you have a Gibson scale. I think it is 25. I’m not positive on the Gibson scale. I know it’s shorter than the Fender scale. What you do with the multi-scale fretboard is on the low B side of the neck, it’s 25 ½ like a Fender scale and on the high A side of the fretboard, it’s 23 ½ so it’s really short so that means the distance from the nut to the bridge is that much shorter. By shortening the length of the scale, it allows you to tune an .08 gauge string all the way up to A. If you try to tune an .08 gauge string to A on a Fender or a Gibson scale fretboard, if you did anything other than touch it, it would snap. You can imagine the tension on that, right? It’s bad enough trying to play an .08 gauge tuned to E. Anyone that plays .08’s, if you can imagine tuning that thing all the way up to A…

JM: Doesn’t Yngwie play with .08’s?

RC: Yngwie does play with .08s. That’s crazy. I don’t know how he does it. Actually, I know why he does it. At least this is what I think I read somewhere. He plays .08’s on the first three strings because his Strat only has 21 frets and by playing that lighter gauge string, it allows him to do bends up to 24 more easily. But on the bottom three, the D, A, and low E string, they’re like .10’s so he mixes a pack of .08’s with .10’s. So the low strings still have the tension and heaviness and the high – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd allow him to do all that extreme bending.

RC: For just people who don’t know, by .08, it’s really thin. If your fingers aren’t tough, you might need stitches for sliding your fingers up an .08 gauge string.

RC: (laughs) Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever used 08’s. I mean I use an .08 for my high A string, but that’s about it. The frets on the angle only have to do with the fact that there is an A string on the guitar. It doesn’t have anything to do with playability or anything like that. It’s just so you can have the A. As a matter-of-fact, I think the Ibanez Universe was originally supposed to have a high A on it, but they could never get it out of the factory because every time Vai would grab the (whammy) bar, the string would break. Rumor has it, I don’t know this for a fact, but I know it was originally supposed to have a high A string and it just didn’t work because like I said earlier, you can’t a tune a string like that and keep it from breaking. I think Michael Angelo actually had a 7-string guitar before Vai that he used on the original Nitro video and I think he said he used to use a .06 or .07 gauge banjo string for the high A string, but with that length of the scale fretboard, it just doesn’t work. The multi-scale fretboard, I think in fact, was invented by Ralph Novak from Novax Guitars. Conklin and anybody else has to license it from them. To come to use that, it’s a patent thing. I also have another 8-string guitar. It’s strung high E to low F#. That guitar has a 27 inch or 27 ½, I think, scale fretboard so it’s longer to compensate for the lower bass string on it for really deep, low-end stuff like Meshuggah. Those guys are great. If you haven’t heard them, check them out. Really, really heavy stuff. I don’t know if you can handle those kind of vocals. I don’t know what you’re used to listening to.

JM: (laughs)

RC: If you’re not used to listening to those type of vocals, it’s definitely something you’ll have to get adjusted to, but the music is so freakin’ awesome you eventually just start to tune it out if it’s not your taste, you know what I mean?

JM: Really good, listenable music will always suck me in. The cookie monster stuff – that just kind of goes with it.

RC: Yeah, absolutely. Those guys, not to get off on a whole other subject, those guys are so rhythmically insane. There’re not that many bands when I listen to them…sometimes I just don’t know what the hell I’m hearing. It’s so complex sometimes. It’s like whatever, man (laughs). I just stopped trying to analyze it and just listen. They do all kinds of crazy polyrhythmic stuff. It’s just pretty sick.

JM: Now to wrap things up here and also for the benefit of some of my non-guitar player listeners who don’t have any idea of what we’re talking about. Now, obviously you are a busy guy. I know you have a family and everything. You teach and have the band. Obviously, you need to practice to maintain that level of playing ability. How do you make all this stuff fit into a 24-hour day?

RC: Uhmm. Well. It’s really crazy. I’ll tell you that much. It’s actually gotten a little easier as of this school year that just started. It’s the first time in eleven years that I haven’t had one of my kids at home that I had to take care of and try to practice.  My youngest is now in 1st grade. She goes all day. Now I have a little bit more time than I had before to practice. Over the last eleven years, it was a total juggling act trying to find time in between taking care of the kiddos and running errands, running the household, paying the bills, going to get groceries and crap like that, and rehearsing with the band and trying to practice. You just have to do it. I can’t really give you a definitive answer to that. You just have to get in and make time and do it. If you’re used to sitting around watching TV and sitting on the computer and playing video games and crap like that, you’re never going to get your chops up to where they need to be because then you won’t have no time to play. You got to try to get in and get organized and make it happen.

JM: All right.

RC: I don’t think that was really a good answer (laughs). You just have to do it. It’s kind of like when I was in high school. I went from being one of the popular kids to being that guy that plays guitar because when I started playing guitar, I mean that was it. It was all over. I stopped hanging out. I stopped going out. My parents freaked out. It was like sit in my room, send meals to my room and I played guitar and that was it. I would just become obsessed with music and guitar and becoming a good guitar player. Everything else becomes secondary. When you have a family, a job, and a career and all that to balance, everything else has to be second – all the extracurricular activities, you know what I mean? You got to do your job as a dad and a husband and still get in there and kick ass on guitar and make it work.

JM: That’s a great answer, man. Good luck with Outworld and with your playing and everything else that you have going on. Thanks for being on the show and if there’s anything else you want to plug or just kind of hype, here’s your chance.

RC: Sure. Sure. Awesome. For those of you that are guitar players out there, I am now endorsing Dean Guitars and I have the Rusty Cooley 7-string Signature Model that’s going to be released in January ‘07. If you’re a 7-string player or thinking about becoming a 7-string player, that is the guitar for you. I designed it from the ground up and it’s built for performance and it will be the 7-string that all other 7-strings are compared to. The Outworld CD will be out Nov. 13th so go check it out and rock on, man.

Source:

www.jackmangan.com/2006/11/09/jack-mangans-deadpan-32-shreddin-with-rusty-cooley/

Links related to interview:

http://www.rustycooley.com

http://www.myspace.com/rustycooley

http://www.deanguitars.com/rusty_cooley.php

http://www.outworldband.com

http://www.myspace.com/outworld

The Legend of “Ripper” Siegel

So there I was, working at Long’s Drugs Store in the sleepy college town of Moraga, CA.  On one side of the mountain running through Moraga lied the beautiful campus of St. Mary’s College: on the other, Rheem Valley.  I met some of coolest people while working at Long’s.  In fact, I probably hit it off more with my co-workers than my college classmates at SMC.  Nick Riedel, Frank Nudo, Jeff Hinck, and I were all tight.  Nick wore a cap that was a throwback to the 30s.  Nobody defended that cap more vehemently the he did and if someone made the mistake of mocking him for it, he would say how his hat could kick that guy’s ass.  Nudo was the cool cat.  We all pretty much wanted to hang with him.  Nobody was a bigger cubs fans than Frank.  Here we were, at least two thousand miles away from Downer’s Grove, IL and he made sure everyone in that store knew that the Cubs had just won and that Sammy Sosa had just hit his 55th homerun…over the intercom.  Jeff Hinck was one of the biggest Metallica fans I had ever met and because I knew who they were AND liked them as well, I was cool in his book.  …And Justice For All was my first taste of Metallica.  Nobody that watched MTV in the late eighties could forget the somber, dark, and bleak imagery of their “One” video, the video that started it all for Metallica on MTV.  To this day, that is one of greatest metal songs ever written.  Ever.  By anyone.  Jeremy Contreras joined Long’s later on.  One day, I was chatting with him about the best guitar players, and he said, “I know a guy and he’s the best guitar player in the world”.  I remember thinking, sure.  ”His name is Ripper Siegel.”  Ripper?  Wasn’t that the name of the guy who replaced Rob Halford in Judas Priest?  What the hell?!  “You got to see him play”.  Curiosity finally got the better of me so one night, I followed Contreras out to Baypoint, a small suburb in the outer East Bay.  Contreras knocks on the door and Ripper opens the door. “Hey, man, what’s going on?”  Hey, man, I brought my friend, Jerred, along.  “Cool, man”.  We went into his room and he had this beat-up looking Fender makeshift copy.  It may have been a cheap Jaguar copy.  There was a huge speaker and a gigantic poster of Yngwie Malmsteen sitting on his Ferrari – advertising for Crate Amps.  I was in awe.  Here was someone besides me who knew Yngwie Malmsteen. “Cool, man”.  Ripper, then, launched into an ear-shattering rendition of Yngwie’s Rising Force.  The arpeggios, the verse riffs, the chorus riff, the fills, everything, were perfectly executed.  This couldn’t be for real.  Who was this guy?  He then played Crazy Train, (perfect again) followed by Whitesnake’s Still of the Night (he tore the roof off of the house with the main riff) then by Slaughter’s Up All Night.   This guy could have been playing in arenas and here we were hanging out in his bedroom watching him put on a show.  Ripper took a break and told us how he had once met Mark Slaughter and Tony MacAlpine.  Then he told me about lessons he took with Alex Skolnick, student of Joe Satriani and shred god of the Bay Area Thrash legends, Testament.  He said Alex got pissed at him because there was nothing he could play that he couldn’t as well.  He could match him note for note.  He showed me an arpeggio pattern he learned from him.  His fingers would fly across the fretboard.  It was insane.  Arpeggios were nothing to him.  After that, I wanted to hang.  To this day, I remember how good Ripper was.  We would go into Guitar Center, he would pick up a guitar and before you knew it, there was a crowd gathered around him.  I remember one of the employees telling him, “you have an extraordinary talent and you could really develop that”.  Ripper always kind of just shrugged that kind of thing off.  It was mind-boggling.  He didn’t want to be a professional guitar player.  He went on a road trip one time with some of his buddies and he threw his beat-up guitar into a bonfire and let it burn as firewood.  It was a piece of crap guitar, but it was the only one he had and he didn’t have enough money to buy a replacement.  It was incomprehensible to me.  Whatever notion there was of forming a band pretty much faded after that.  Somewhere in my vast recording archives, I got the Ripper sessions.  We only collaborated on one song.  I brought a harmony lead line into the jam and he played a pedal tone riff that descended chromatically.  It was a good start, but in the end, an unfinished song idea.  Back then, I could hardly hang with him, guitar-wise.  He was so much better than I was.  It made me realize how much work I had ahead of me if I wanted to get to that level.  

Technique – Speed, Efficiency and Muting on the Guitar – Part I

After many years of playing the guitar and working to improve my technique, I have found that muting is one of the most challenging aspects of playing.  You can play arpeggios or lightning fast runs, but if your picking hand inadvertently hits an open string or your playing hand pulls off a note and sounds an open string as it transitions to the next note, then it defeats the whole idea of playing fast.  On an electric guitar turned up to 10, this could be rather embarassing.  If this is a problem, then what should you do?  I have encountered this problem while playing the diminished scale starting on the G string and ascending to the E string. 

Ex. 1

E———-12——–15

B—————-14—-

G———-12——–15

There’s two ways to play this lick: 1) With the index playing the 12th fret, the ring playing the 14th, and the pinky playing the 15th frets. (This is how Yngwie Malmsteen plays this lick). 2) With the index playing the 12th fret, the middle playing the 14th fret, and the ring playing the 15th frets.

As far as reducing strain on the playing hand, the first way is the best.  For me, however, muting has been an issue performing it this way.  When I’ve played this lick with the 2nd fingering, muting is not really an issue.  When I compared how my fingers were positioned in both fingerings, it became clear what I was not doing – I was not dampening the adjacent strings effectively.  In the 2nd fingering, my fingers were angled in such a way that all adjacent strings were muted.  I could just settle for the 2nd fingering, but the 1st finger is the most ergonomically sound (you don’t want to develop tendinitus!!).

Here is a simple trick to attack this problem no matter what fingering you choose to go with.  To test whether you are muting correctly, position your index finger on the G string (12 fret).  With your index finger in place, pick the adjacent B and E strings.  The G string (12th fret) should ring clearly, but the B and E strings should have a dampened unringing sound – almost like a thud.  If you hear any audible type of note on either the B and E strings, you should re-adjust the positioning of your index finger so that it covers the B and E strings.  Once these strings have been effectively dampened, go on to the 15th fret of the G string and perform the same test.  If your index finger is effectively dampening the B and E strings, you probably won’t encounter muting problems when the pinky is on the 15th fret.  The trickiest part of this lick lies on the 14th fret of the B string.  Essentially, the ring finger has to mute the G string above it and the E string below it.  (If you do not, prepare to hear an open G string ringing through your amp).  Again, while you have the ring finger positioned at the 14th fret, pick the G and E strings.  If either G or E is ringing, adjust the position of your ring finger until these two strings are effectively dampened.  If you find it impossible to mute both strings with your ring finger, try lightly bridging all three strings with your index finger.  Play the G string (12th fret and 15th frets like normal i.e. with the index and pinky fingers, respectively), then as you fret the 14th fret (B string), dampen the G string with your index finger and keep it there, until the B string (14th fret) rings out, then bar the 12th frets (B and E strings), but apply most of the pressure to the E string while dampening the B string.  The bridging technique is essentially the same technique used for sweep arpeggios, i.e. you play a note, and immediately dampen it with the playing hand.

If you find a better combination of left hand muting, by all means stick with it!!  The most important thing is to experiment. Every guitar player whether consciously or subconsciously uses a muting system.  What works for one guitar player may not necessarily work for another especially if your hands are  smaller than other players.  Playing slowly and checking whether your strings are muted correctly may seem to be time consuming and a tedious way to practice, but I can guarantee it will clean up your playing. 

Memorable Concerts of 2006

The end of 2006 is almost here and before it comes to a close, I want to share my personal favorite concert experiences.  I’m really into metal, but I like other styles as well.  I saw legends, Robin Trower and Johnny Winter, both at B.B. King’s.  I highly recommend anyone to pick up a copy of Trower’s masterpiece, Bridge of Sighs.  My dad used to play this album when I was growing up and without even knowing it, I absorbed Day of the Eagle.  He’s been described as a “white Hendrix”, but I think this is a superficial comparison, just as it would be to say Stevie Ray Vaughan is a Hendrix clone.  There’s only one Hendrix.  That’s not to say he did not inspire either guitar player or legions for that matter.  Each guitar player was strongly influenced by Hendrix’s playing, but they both have their own distinct styles.  The basis of Trower’s playing is the Blues.  He makes generous use of double stops and plays with a heavy vibrato.  Saying he is a “white Hendrix” just does not do him justice although I’m sure he does not mind the comparison (He often expresses his admiration for Hendrix in interviews).  I thoroughly enjoyed watching him play live. 

I also saw Johnny Winter.  Everyone I talk to says he’s always been frail, even in his ’70’s heyday.  The man can barely walk, and I think he may almost be blind, but he can still play.  He only played an hour set, but that was made up for when he abandoned his fretless tinny sounding Steinberger in favor of his legendary Gibson Firebird and brought out his metal slide.  His playing on the Steinberger is customary, rote, predictable, textbook, and unbefitting a player of his stature.  When he plays his slide, however, he is one of the greatest performers you will ever hear.

I saw Steve Howe, guitar player of the legendary Yes.  He’s a virtuoso, but a very different one.  No, you will not hear him burning through Paganini’s 24 Caprices with reckless abandon, but he will give you masterful renditions of songs in every fingerstyle format.  At times, his playing suggests astute classical training, Chet Atkins, and Adrian Legg.  Of course, he saved the best for last – the infamously titled, “The Clap”.  Years ago, he told Guitar World magazine, the song was supposed to be called “Clap”, but the label executives got it wrong and put “The Clap” on the final printing of The Yes Album.  The intention of the song was to get the audience to clap as he played, hence the title.  One of the lighter moments of the show occurred after the first set.  There was a guy back near the bar that wouldn’t stop bellowing, “YEAHHHHHHH!!!!”  Howe joined in on the fun and bellowed back, YEAHHHHHH!!!.  Here’s this old frail man in his 60’s screaming like an offensive lineman.  It was a riot and the whole place was laughing.

May 12th was a memorable date – it was the very first show of Guns N’ Roses second comeback featuring the re-loaded, revamped line-up minus Buckethead.  As the lights went out and the beginning lines of Welcome to the Jungle faded in and out, the place absolutely erupted.  There was an electricity in the air.  I watched in wonderment as Axl walked out on stage.  The pyro shot off and the main riff kicked in.  It was a different Axl – a healthier, more robust version, not the scrawny tatooed Sunset Strip Rose from Glam Metal’s heyday.  He was doing all the familar moves – the side swagger from the Sweet Child O’ Mine video, the stationary one-legged hopscotch with his arms out.  I could only smile.  Despite all the years that have passed since the release of Appetite for Destruction, this was the same Axl.  The next mystery was the guitar players.  For months prior to the Hammerstein performance, there was growing speculation as to who would be the third guitarist.  It was clear Buckethead was not returning and the search was on.  Auditions were being held, but like everything done by Axl, every player auditioning had to sign a confidentiality agreement.  Still, information leaked through the press, and we heard about Sean Baker auditioning (http://www.theseanbakerorchestra.com/) as well as Josh Craig of Alien Blakk (http://www.thealienblakk.com/) and Bryan Kehoe of M.I.R.V. (http://www.thekehoenation.com/).  There was also speculation that John 5 (ex-Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie) was being considered.  Personally, of all the choices and names floating around, I thought John 5 was the closest to Buckethead’s style and hoped he would be the third guitarist.  When I looked onstage there was a normal looking, unshaven, unkempt looking guy to the far left playing a Gibson (Bumblefoot), a guy that looked like Izzy, but wasn’t Izzy (Richard Fortus), and a guy that looked just like John Frusciante (Robin Finck).  It was a show I’ll never forget. 

Later in the year, I saw Guns N’ Roses at Madison Square Garden.  (http://jwm102313.wordpress.com/2006/11/11/the-madison-square-garden-guns-n-roses-show/)

I saw Buckethead twice this year, both times at B.B. King’s.  I first saw him at the Bowery Ballroom in 2005.  Never before have I seen a guitar player that made me speechless.  He was so good, I was completely dumbfounded.  I kept shaking my head, asking if what I was seeing was real.  Maybe this is what Eric Clapton was talking about when he describes his first encounter with Jimi Hendrix.  Whenever Buckethead plays in New York, I will always be there to see him play.

Back in September, I took a Contiki Tour through Spain for two weeks.  On Sept. 22nd, our last night in Barcelona, we saw Flamenco dancing with guitars.  I don’t even know what scale they were playing (the Gypsy Scale?).  They play Andres Segovia-style with their fingers as picks.  The type of speed and accuracy they achieve is phenomenal.  The more I think about that trip, the more I want to go back…

Troy Grady’s Movie Project – Cracking The Code: The Secrets of Shred Guitar

I admit it.  I’m a shred-a-holic.  I’m fascinated by guitar virtuosos so when I saw this article in Blabbermouth’s Dec. 4th archives, I was intrigued.  After perusing Troy Grady’s website, it’s apparent the Blabbermouth article does not do justice to his movie project (Currently, it is in its beginning stages).  The two central questions are: What can a video camera, aka “shredcam”, reveal about a guitar player’s technique and how can this device be used to better one’s own playing? 

Before answering these questions, it is important to know the basic shred techniques.  It is generally agreed that there are three different picking techniques – alternate, alternative (or economy), and sweep (or rake).  Alternate picking employs strictly up-down-up-down movements from the picking hand and is the most difficult technique to master.  Alternative, or economy picking allows the player to cheat on the strict up-down-up-down approach of alternate picking.  For instance, if you are playing across two adjacent strings and playing three notes per string, alternative picking allows the following picking motion - down-up-down (1st string) to down-up-down (2nd string).  In other words, alternative picking, when playing three notes per string, is symmetrical.  The third technique is sweep or rake picking and requires one to play one note per string with a corresponding down stroke if ascending (going from low pitch to high pitch notes) on the fretboard.  In essence, all strings are “raked” in one motion.  To avoid the notes from ringing together, the player must immediately mute the string with his fretting hand.  These techniques are available to all guitar players.  How far they are developed, however, is up to each individual guitar player.  All three techniques have their own unique sound i.e. alternate picking achieves a staccato effect while alternative (economy) and sweep picking achieve a legato effect.  Staccato is sharp, crisp, and distinct.  Legato is smooth and more vocal-like.

Alternate picking is so difficult to master because it requires one to forego his or her own natural tendencies.  To analogize guitar picking to the movements of a river, it’s easier to go with the current, not against it.  Alternative picking allows the guitar player to go with the current while alternate picking forces the guitar player to go against it.  Using the three notes per string example again, alternate picking may require you to play the below string on an up-pick e.g. down-up-down (1st string) – Up-down-up (2nd string).  Your instincts want you to play the second string on a down stroke instead so you have to be very conscious of how you play when you go for true alternate picking. 

The more one practices, one may ask, “why do something that does not make sense i.e. go against the current when a desirable amount of speed and technique can be achieved by going with the current?  One’s answer is a matter of preference and will dictate one’s stylistic development on the guitar.  You do not have to employ alternate picking on the guitar to be able to play well or fast, but it can help.  Jeff Loomis of Nevermore uses alternative picking to play incredibly fast passages.  It’s all a matter of preference. If your goal is to develop alternate picking at the level of a Rusty Cooley, Michael Angelo Batio, Paul Gilbert, or Buckethead, then a shredcam could help you monitor whether you are getting closer to this goal.  (Note: Troy Grady maintains that Yngwie Malmsteen does not play fast using true alternate picking!) While you are practicing or playing, the shredcam records your picking hand’s motions.  The video can then be played back at slow motion which allows the player to analyze his/her own playing.  Michael Angelo Batio, in his instructional video, “Speed Kills” tells the viewer a simple, yet important rule of picking, “you must pick fast the way you pick slow.”  If you sound great while playing slow, but terrible when going into shred mode, then your picking technique is non-uniform.  To sound great, whether slow or fast, you must pick uniformly.  The shredcam, in practice, should allow the guitar player to spot this deviation visually.

I do not use a metronome and I’m probably not going to use a shredcam anywhere in the near future, but I recognize that others may be able to achieve their goals through these devices.  John Petrucci, for one, is a major advocate of the metronome. Undoubtedly, it played a significant role in his own development.  For me, however, technical advancement can be achieved by having a discerning ear alone.  Most people have the inherent ability to detect whether something sounds good or bad, clean or sloppy, fast or slow, etc.   Technique is about the sound you achieve on the instrument whether you are shredding, bending notes, inflecting notes with the whammy bar or muting unwanted noise.  If you cannot afford a metronome or shredcam, but still have your hearing, you have everything you need.

http://www.troygrady.com/

Strapping Young Lad – Antiproduct – The New Black (2006)

This song reminds me why I like Devin Townsend so much.  Traditionalists and purists alike would cry foul at the use of a flute and trumpet in the middle of a metal song.  Who else but Devin Townsend could pull this off?

I love how the main riff transitions into Dream Theater territory  between 1:55-2:04.  Just as Devin screeches “For Sale…” he and Jed Simon lock into a heavy groove with a strong swing feel.  It’s absolutely brilliant.  Over this riff, we hear a trumpet and flute playing off of each other.  The passage morphs again, this time into Steve Vai Land.  It’s a great homage to the Mighty Vai. (Dev was the singer on Vai’s 1993 album Sex & Religion).  The song continues to build with Gene Hoglan’s thunderous stampede behind the drumkit.

Songs like Antiproduct challenge the whole concept of metal.  Can a song have brass instruments and still be called “metal”?  I think Devin has proven beyond any doubt that it can be done.  It’s great to hear artists like Townsend who continually push the limits of heavy music. 

I – Between Two Worlds – Album Review

This is easily one of the best metal albums of 2006.  I’ve heard the style of this album called death n’ roll, but I think this is not an accurate description.  It’s not death metal and it’s not rock n’ roll.  Abbath is at the forefront of the black metal genre so if there is an extreme element on this album, it’s definitely black metal – not death metal.  It is, however, a black metal that embraces rock stylings, techniques, and attitude.  I think Abbath has stumbled upon a sound that is unique.  There is no greater example of this than the album’s opening track, The Storm I Ride.  At 3:27, Abbath states his case concisely.  The song opens with a boogie style riff that’s immediately catchy.  The verse riff shifts directions.  The key changes and the riff features Abbath’s signature use of thirds.  The chorus riff is quite possibly the best riff on the album. It’s one of the most rockin’, catchy, kickass hooks I’ve ever heard from Abbath.  The bridge riff is short and sweet and sets the stage for solo which Abbath perfectly executes. 

Abbath’s solos throughout the album are tasteful.  He does not overplay and does not waste any notes.  They serve the song and only enhance the mood of the music.  As far as the stylings and musical direction of the album, I can hear a little Megadeth R.I.P (Hangar 18 opening) and Cryptic Writings (She-Wolf) influence as well as Iron Maiden.

There is not one bad song on this album, but if I had to choose my favorites, they would be, A Storm I Ride,  Warriors, Mountains, and Far Beyond the Quiet.  Abbath has said there are songs that will appeal to Immortal fans and most likely, he was referring to Battalions and Cursed We Are.  There is a good mix of material and the album flows well.  4.8 out of 5.0

Chinese Democracy Release Date – Part 3

With Axl Rose’s fondness for confidentiality agreements, I’ve thought, “what would keep him from using this device against music retailers?”  Could Axl make every music retailer in the U.S. sign confidentiality agreements?  Although he might want to, logistically this would be next to impossible.  So what other options might he have?

 Axl is a very loyal person.  He has shown in the past that if you cross him, he will stop at no length to ensure you pay for it, but on the flipside, if you show your love, he will reward you.  Look at Sebastian Bach.  Sebastian has continually showered Axl with praise.  In his eyes, Axl is infallible and he has been rewarded handsomely for it.  He’s been given a guest spot on “My Michelle” and the opening slot on both European and North American Guns N’ Roses tours. 

Last May, Bumblefoot virtually rescued the band when he joined on very short notice.  Similarly, Frank Ferrer has filled in for Brain who chose to sit out the North American tour to be with his family.  Both additions have enabled Guns N’ Roses to continue touring without a hitch and to show his appreciation, Axl delayed the release of Chinese Democracy to ensure both guys have parts on the album. 

If anything is clear, it’s that Axl rewards those who show him dedication and loyalty and in the past year, New York has shown its love to Axl by rewarding him with sold out shows.  I think Chinese Democracy could still be released this year, but in an unprecedented way.  Keep in mind, it’s unconventional, but the marketing for Chinese Democracy has been anything, but conventional.  The GNR camp would have to decide on a  music retailer.  In Manhattan, this could be either Best Buy, J&R Music or the Virgin Megastore.  The Virgin Megastore would be the most likely of candidates since it tends to garner the most publicity with its promotional events.  Also, being the maverick that he is, I think Richard Branson would agree to release Chinese Democracy under Axl and Merck’s terms, i.e. by signing confidentiality agreements.  Branson has always been about taking risks and pushing the envelope.  He would be the perfect partner to Axl and Merck in this unconventional scheme.  The only question would be “when?”  I have my mind set on three dates:  Dec. 26th, 2006; Jan. 2nd, 2007; Feb. 20th, 2007.  I think the further the release is pushed out, the more likely it will be released conventionally, i.e. with a pre-announced release date, national distribution, and saturation advertising, but that would almost be a letdown.  Why do this when you can cause pure pandemonium at the Union Square Virgin Megastore?  What better publicity would there be than that?