Guitarchitecture

Artist: Rob Johnson
Label: Vivid Sound
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Import
Media: Audio CD

UPC: 667342709826
EAN: 0667342709826
ASIN: B00008DCCS

Release Date: 2001-08-25

Guitarchitecture

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| Rock | Styles | Music

Customer Reviews:

Simply Ravishing INSANE guitar rock! .......2004-10-06

Thank you for reading my post.

Now to the review of this cd. This cd is one "helluva" instrumental guitar rock album. My best way to describe this album is as a Ravishing Insane ride through 7 strings on a Dodge Viper. There were times I had to ask myself is this really Rob Johnson or Steve Vai. Other times I thought was this Michael Angelo? No wait this has to be Michael Angelo! And most of all had to ask myself is Rob Johnson really from Ohio or from another planet?

There are a total of 10 songs plus 2 bonus tracks and most of them rocked. This guy can shred like a mad man! Since I am the first person to review this cd will give my own personal thoughts on each song, but first will point out the negatives of this cd.
Okay the bad things about this album are number one it had no keyboards and the first album I ever heard with Rob Johnson was from Magnitude 9. The one thing loved about that band was the keyboards that really complimented the guitars and was dissapointed that no keyboards were on this album. Another negative was this album, like a lot of solo/intrumental albums, had no ballads or love songs. Now while I am not a huge fan of ballads or love themed songs I do like to hear one or two of these type of songs on an instrumental album especially when you can get sick of hearing a lot of loud stuff and a ballad with no lyrics can really brings things down for a minute or two. Joe Satriani is a master of that. I mean can you think of Steve Vai's "Passion & Warfare" without "For the LOve of God" or Joe Satriani's "Surfing With The Alien" without "Always With You, Always with Me"? Another dissapointment was that Mr. Johnson needs a little work on his melody technique something all the great instrumental rockers have mastered. Since there are no regular vocals it is detrimental that the guitarist have great Melody in the songs and in my opinion Mr. JOhnson needs a little work on that and so do a lot of other instrumental guitarist out there as well. Perfect example of this is Vinnie Vincet and Michael ANgelo both great guitarist but on their solo instrumentals they forget about melody to keep the listener listening. On a side note should of had songs time length next to their titles on the back. Last but not least in my personal opinion one should not have his or her picture on the front or back cover of their solo cds, that is what the inside booklet is for.
Okay now to the tunes. If your still reading this thank you.
The songs were rated on a 1 through 10 scale with 1 being poorest and 10 being perfect.

1. Guitarchitecture: This is the fist song and it sets the mood for this insane out of this world cd. When I first heard this song my thoughts were: man this guy is fast. Sounds just like Michael Angelo. How many guitarist you know can sound that fast? Great introduction song with cool voice sample, "well which instrument do you think you would like to play? Well I was thinking like how about electric guitar." Great rhythms as well and the whole song is very in your face guitar mayhem. Plenty of texture on this one. 9.0

2.Transcendental: This song rocks! Starts of kind of slow and then gets in your face and once again I thought this was Michael Angelo. I just love the rhythms on this one. Another plus was the way he made the guitar go from sounding like Michael Angelo to sounding like, I swear to GOD, Steve Vai when the song hit 3:00 mins. Just for about 13 or 14 seconds he "went outside of the box" and threw in this little beautiful lick that was really out of the songs progression and still made it fit. Sounded just like a Steve Vai lick where the guitar sounds like a keyboard. Honest! 9.5

3. Divided by three: This songs as the title implies has 3 great things. 1 is great drums, 2 is great bass even a mini solo bass, and 3 it has great guitars. Solid song that gets a 8.5.

4. Subliminal Dream: One of the better songs that has a beautiful lick as it's main theme. The tone of this song was superb and is just great sounding. This song is more Satriani than the others with plenty of melody throughout the song. One of my personal favorites that got a lot of repeat play. 9.5

5. Super Charged: This song is okay and is not as good as the others and that is simply for the fact that the previous 4 songs were so much better and a ballad or love themed song at this point would of been better. A solid song but mediocre at best when compared to the other songs. Main problem was that it was too repetive and plain sounding and nothing grabbed me or "hooked" me. 7.0

6. Grooves in Orbit: Just as the title implies this songs has an out of space groove. So is this how aliens groove? The thing that stood out on this groove was the drumming that gave it an odd sound. Made me feel like this was recorded with a jungle atmosphere in outer space. Think of outer space and think of the jungle and you get an idea of the odd yet groove of this song. Plus at mid way through he thows in a mini rhythm and blues or jazzy sounding mini-solo that is out of the whole song's progression some what of what he did in song #2: Transcendetal that was just plain out of the songs range yet it still fit. Great pickings towards the end and some out of this world playing around at the very end that made it sound like the guitar was talking. 8.5

7. Dance Of The Monster Gods: This song is so damn awesome! Expect to hit the repeat button on this one. There is a voicing sample in the middle of the song about U.F.O's that really enhances the vibe of this song. This is clearly my favorite song. This song remind me of Joe Satriani's first album for it has a raw sound as if this guy is just coming of age. Watch out!9.5

8. Instant Vibe Potion: This song just like song #6 has a great groove or "VIBE" as the title implies. This is somewhat a simplistic song but it is still good. 8.0

9. Chatterbox: This song is just like song #5 that is okay and mediocre at best when compared to the other songs. The problem I had with this song was just like the problem that was mentioned on song #5. Which is that is lacked a "hook" to keep me interested long enough. Filler song if you ask me. 7.0

10. Metaphysical: This song was another song that made me ask myself, "is this Michael Angelo?" for it had that overall vibe. Not a great song but not a bad song. Let just say it is above average and not quite mediocre. 8.0

11. Exhilaration: This song has a great combination of two guitars sounds interwinded. Very upbeat song with a lot of texture and diverity all over the song. There was even if you listen close enough a little bit of out of the ordinary scales heard that gave it a slight exotic sound. Just as song #10 it was not too bad but not too good. 8.0

12. 7 String Rhetoric: This song was as close to a ballad or love themed song as you can get. This is probably the slowest song on the album without actually being slow. A lot of unique sounds here and the only problem is that it is not as long as it maybe should of been. Hard to describe this song very different from the other songs and was somewhat out of placed. I do not know why but this song made me think of Jason Becker or Marty Friedman for the exotic sounds that you hear on this one. A solid song overall and it kind of makes you think. 8.5

Well there you go. Would like to point out that this solo cd sounded nothing like the Magnitude 9 cd I heard. On the Magnitude 9 album he had some flashes of Yngwie and Petrucci and that was non existent here. This cd is not a masterpiece like a "Perpetual Burn", "Passion & Warfare", or a "Surfing With The Alien", but it is very raw and solid. This is still a really great cd and deserves great recogniniton. Mr. Rob Johnson just like a lot of guitarist from progressive metal bands lack the exposure they deserve. The way I see it he is only going to get better. The man is still young in terms of a musical career and will only get better with age. Rob Johnson is not going away anytime soon you can count on that. If your a fan of instrumental guitar music than this cd has to be in your collection. This guy can shred and shows what he can do when he lets his fingers do the talking. And boy can those fingers talk.

P.S. Guitarist that buy this album may get jealous that they can not play as good as he does. Unless your name or last name is Buckethead, Satriani, Vai, Baito, Van Halen, Gilbert, Malmsteen etc etc.

Cheers Mate! Cheers!!

Chris(COKE08)
coke08_discount@yahoo.com

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