MARTY FRIEDMAN – Loudspeaker

Marty Friedman is best known for being lead guitarist in the well-known Metal band Megadeth (1989 – 2000), the band that sold over 10 million albums when he was a member. Through the past decade, Friedman has done a lot of musically creative solo albums, such as Orchestral soundtrack music and more aggressive, experimental Rock/Metal. In June 2006, Friedman released a completely new solo record called Loudspeaker. It gained him a lot of success and there’s a big reason for that! His unique guitar playing and songwriting skills are what makes the album a very accomplished record.

This is the follow-up album to Music For Speeding, and is his most aggressive and heavy album so far. Friedman is a unique guitar player and his talent is showcased very well in the music he wrote for Loudspeaker. Loudspeaker doesn’t contain only his fantastic guitar playing because the guest appearances are many and feature guitar legends such as Steve Vai and John Petrucci. Jens Johansson (Stratovarius and former Malmsteen keyboardist) are also among the guest musicians. Even the legendary bass player Billy Sheehan (ex. Mr. Big, ex. David Lee Roth, Steve Vai) joined Friedman for this project… and the album speaks for itself. This is a real good piece of music. It’s very experimental and very heavy.

The opening track, “Elixir,” is what you definitely could call a chimeric kick-ass song! It starts out with enough energy to blow your mind out. The intro riff sounds a little weird, which is also a reminder that this is an experimental record. The great production makes it sound so fresh and powerful, showing off the rough sound as well as the melodic sound in every instrument. There is no way you can’t be carried away by this masterpiece of a song, and you might say that “Elixir” is a song that has it all. It’s intense and REAL heavy, but also melodic and so tight. When it comes to the guitar parts, well, all your expectations are fulfilled!

“Black Orchid” features Dream Theatre guitarist John Petrucci and this is a massive piece of music. The intro could remind you of some weird music a High School Punk Rock band could have made, but then it takes another direction and becomes more guitar solo/riff-based and heavier as well. There are some twin guitar parts in this song, and it sounds terrific. You can’t actually recognize Petrucci’s guitar playing on this song, because it’s not like what he normally would do in Dream Theatre. All in all, it’s a very fine song.

“Glycerine Flesh” is a very relaxing song, starting out with acoustic guitars and a nice backing beat in the bass/drums section. The lead guitars are doubled; one playing the higher octave and the other the lower. It seems like Friedman loves twin guitars because he uses that effect a lot. That’s not a bad thing. Jens Johansson is the guest musician on this track, and delivers the goods as usual. A fantastic keyboard player! Then they slow down a little, going into a very beautiful part before building it up and then ending the song with some awesome guitar parts.

The song “Viper” features another great guitar virtuoso, namely Steve Vai. It starts out with a mysterious guitar riff with a lot of different voices/noises incorporated. Then, it goes over into a heavy and very slow riff, and holy shit (!) it’s cool! On this track, it’s also a bit difficult to hear that it’s actually Steve Vai playing guitar. It’s a very mysterious and “dark” song, but very interesting — it lasts for about seven minutes.

The mentioned songs are the highlights of this album. Of course, most of the other songs are great to0, but those mentioned stand out more than the rest. Loudspeaker is very experimental, but also an album that features a lot of commercially heavy music. It is melodic, heavy, nostalgic, and melancholy. This is an album that is recommended for everyone, especially guitar lovers. An absolute masterpiece!

Lineup

Marty Friedman – Guitars and bass
Billy Sheehan – Bass on track 1, 4
Ryuichi Nishida – Drums on tracks 1 – 4, 6, and 10
Masaki – Bass on tracks 2, 3, 5, 7,
Ikuo – Bass on track 11
John Petrucci – Guest guitar on track 3
Jeremy Colson – Drums on tracks 5, 7, and 11
Jens Johansson – Keyboards on track 6
Steve Vai – Guest guitar on track 8
Tetsu Mukaiyama – Drums on track 9
Mick Karn – Bass on track 10
Geri Soriano-Lightwood – Voice on track 10
Ramin Sakurai – Manipulation on track 10
Tom Harriman – Manipulation on track 10 and string arrangement on track 11

Tracklist

1. Elixir
2. Street Demon (Santa Rosa Wrecking Crew Mix)
3. Black Orchid
4. Paradise Express
5. Sekai Ni Hitotsudake No Hana
6. Glycerine Flesh
7. Stigmata Addiction
8. Viper
9. Coloreas Mi Vida
10. Devil Take Tomorrow
11. Static Rain