Spotted over on truthinshredding, Marco Sfogli is working on his next solo album and has posted up a demo of a new song called ‘The Reaction’ on his myspace page.

Hi folks, I just posted one of the new songs from the next Sfoley solo record…still in its demo form but hey, sounds good to me already:) Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Sounds fantastic, can’t wait to hear more!

I’ve finally bought myself Sacred Mother Tongue‘s latest album “The Ruin Of Man“.

I’ve been looking forward to this album as Andy James, UK guitar virtuoso and ‘the future of shred’, is now the guitarist in the band. I’m a big fan of his playing and particularly his solo CD ‘In The Wake Of Chaos‘.

I love a good bit of Metal and from the crunching riff on the opening track, ‘The End‘, I was moshing away \m/… albeit in my chair .

The album is littered with fantastic riffage and a really tight rhythm section. Particular fave riffs are the main riff to ‘Two Thousand Eight Hundred‘, the double kick assault of ‘The Suffering’ and ‘Numb‘.

Of course we’re talking about Andy James here, no big surprises that, overall, the guitar work on the album is exceptional. From his trademark fast alternate picking licks to those fantastic wide intervallic tapping ideas, it’s all here but all working with the song and band dynamic. The musical ideas and solos here are used to complement the songs rather than dominate. In saying that the album does end with a kick ass instrumental track called ‘Hour Glass‘ which showcases the man’s incredible talents.

Vocals are an area that can put alot of people off Metal, there is a fair bit of screaming on this album which may not be for some, but it is mixed in with some great melodic choruses/sections. So it’s horses for courses really, personally I like a mix of the two for the contrast.

It’ll be interesting to see how ‘Britain’s Most Promising Metal Act’ the band do commercially. They’re playing the festival circuit this summer, so if they cut it live I’m sure they are destined for big things!

If you like your modern Metal riff laden and guitar playing nice and scary it’s definitely an album to check out!

Missing alot of cool news at the moment like the fact Rob Balducci now has three new songs ( Friction, The Essence and Liquid Soul ) from his upcoming album, ‘Violet Horizon’, streaming on his myspace page.

Plus some very cool guest solo news:

I am happy to announce that you can now listen to streaming new songs from my upcoming release Violet Horizon. Friction ,The Essence and Liquid Soul. I really like these Three tunes so I picked them for you to listen to. I really love the guitar tone we got on this record, my best to date. I hope you enjoy them.

Stay tuned for information on the release. The CD will soon be available for download worldwide from Favored Nations… It will be on Itunes and much more other download sites. As soon as it is available I will be posting information on where and how to get it.

I am very excited about this release. I have to thank Dave Weiner and Guthrie Govan for there guest solo spots… they just killed! I also have to thank Chris Ingram for his guest keyboard part on the tune Trinity.
Thank you for your support!
RB

Very cool 8), can’t wait for the album!

In support of the upcoming Nine Inch Nails, Janes Addiction and Street Sweeper tour in the US ninja2009.com is offering an exclusive downloadable EP of tracks from all three bands!

The ‘supergroup’ Chickenfoot ( Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Chad Smith) have put up two hotly anticipated songs, ‘Soap On A Rope’ and ‘Down The Drain’, on their website and myspace page.

Sounding pretty darn rockin’ and great to hear Satch in a band context again.