Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of shred guitar—a style that, to me, more often than not comes across as pompous and soulless with little to no variety. Well, after hearing the first solo album from WINTERLONG guitarist Thörbjorn Englund (who’s Swedish in case you couldn’t tell) my faith is officially restored in a genre I’d just about completely forsaken.

The album title “Influences” couldn’t be more appropriate: this CD has more styles than Madonna’s gone through. It starts out with “Jesus Stole My Harley”, a fairly predictable Satriani-esque rock/shred piece. After that is where the current generation thing kicks in: a bunch of covers from the NES game Castlevania (which I recognized even without the PR info). Anyone who didn’t grow up in the 8-bit 80s probably doesn’t appreciate the music from these games and how sound programmers during that era did so much with such limiting technology—check out bands like THE MINIBOSSES if you don’t believe me on the impact of these games. The last few tracks are more classically influenced, with “W.A.M. Goes Electric” (a cover of Mozart’s 40th which has been done to death by shredders, but at least this one’s only about 35 seconds long) and “The Abyss”, a track that’s got a bit of a “Moonlight Sonata” vibe to it. Another thing that Mr. Englund has going for him is that, like Eddie Van Halen, he can play the keys too; and piano tracks like “Beautiful Beyond” keeps things fresh and interesting. Further adding to this variety are tracks like “A Flame of Flamenco” (which is exactly what it sounds like it is), multiple changes in guitar tone (such as the dry bluesy tone in “Winds of Change” to an almost PANTERA tone in “Flying”) and heartfelt interludes like “Vikings’ Tomb”.

Probably the best thing about “Influences” is the fact that it packs so much into such a tiny package: this is only a 38 minute CD and each of the 16 tracks is relatively short in length. It’s impossible to get bored with this thing. Somehow, though, I have the feeling that a lot of people are going to write this off as an album for an ADD-stricken generation that can’t be taken seriously, particularly because of the Castlevania covers. Eh, let them miss the boat if they want to, because the underlying truth is that this is a cleverly crafted display of talent that sure beats hearing the tired sounding current material from the shred mainstays or looking to Eastern Europe for obscure mullet-sporting virtuosos (those to whom I refer know who they are). The next generation of shred is right here

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: www.winterlong.org

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