Duuuuuuuuuuuude. <\/p>\n
Just had to get that out of the way.\u00a0 The point being, this independently released (debut) disc from DC Slater paints him as a guitar player\u2019s guitar player, a fret-frying melodic rocker whose live show would have the air guitarists out in force and the rest of the crowd studying his fingers\u2019 every twitch for clues. <\/p>\n
This collection of eleven instrumentals clocks in at a little over 40 minutes, which gives you a fair idea of Slater\u2019s approach here \u2013 don\u2019t waste time, find a groove, knock out some killer solos, then get out and find another.\u00a0 This approach is refreshing in the sense that you don\u2019t get a lot of noodling and the energy level stays high the whole way.\u00a0 Even relatively mid-tempo cuts like \u201cEagles\u201d and \u201cShades Of Grey\u201d have an underlying propulsiveness that keeps things moving. <\/p>\n
Slater\u2019s style and tone, it must be said, owe a great deal to Joe Satriani.\u00a0 He has that same clean finish, creative note-bending and tendency to attack solos aggressively without sacrificing melody.\u00a0 The aptly named \u201cFuel\u201d in particular feels like a lost Satch number with its rocket-powered tempo, solid chorus riffs and speed-demon solos.\u00a0 \u201cPledge\u201d veers into heavier territory but still feels like you could be surfing with the alien again.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cLong Way Home,\u201d buried near the end of the disc, is in fact one of the best cuts here, full of energy and bright riffs, along with some welcome, stutter-stepping tempo changes.\u00a0 The latter points to the one real issue I had with this disc, one that has confronted many similarly gifted players before Slater.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve sat through the seventh or eighth rip-roaring solo over a basic backing beat it becomes apparent what\u2019s missing \u2013 subtlety, restraint, musical range.\u00a0 This album is about 75% balls-out soloing, and it\u2019s damned impressive stuff, but after 25 minutes you start feeling like maybe you accidentally put in one of those instructional CDs on how to be a guitar hero.\u00a0 A slow blues, an acoustic number, a ballad — anything to break up this monolithic slab of shredding would have helped. <\/p>\n
Part of the relative lack of variety might be attributed to the fact that this is a true solo album, as in Slater also played the drums, bass and occasional keyboards on every track here.\u00a0 Having other musicians to play off of and experiment with might have produced a less homogenous final product.\u00a0 Maybe next time? <\/p>\n
Those observations aside, Decisions<\/i> is a razor-sharp debut from a player who is clearly a force to be reckoned with.\u00a0 You might not have heard of DC Slater yet, but something tells me you will. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7954],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-40282","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dc-slater","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40282"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}