Friday, February 7, 2014

Bruce BOUILLET: "The Order Of Control"

Rating: RR
Label: Mascot Records/Warner 2014
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

How many more instrumental guitar records in the style of 80s Shrapnel and their average release does the world of today need? The former six-string bender at Racer X (yes, they had more of them than just Paul "Mr Big" Gilbert) gets the bleeding fingers syndrome with his alternate picking technique and dark harmonic feel. Bruce Bouillet's third solo album, "The Order of Control", feels like the order of chaos. There's however no order in chaos, only chaos, and only chaos is no order at all really.

Truth be told. I'm perhaps not the best of judge since I gave up my dream of becoming the next Yngwie Malmsteen a long time ago. Then again, if all reviewers were as good at playing the instruments as the musicians they judge... well, you know what's missing, yeah? But in my humble opinion, it's all too familiar somehow and the widdly-widdly compositions will certainly not knock you to the ground for its stunning originality. Virtuoso hard rock guitar albums are always going to be compared to Steve Vai's "Passion and Warfare", Joe Satriani's "Flying In A Blue Dream" or Malmsteen's Rising Force. Bouillet is a darn fine guitarist, there's no denying it. If you still believe in the Shrapnel dream that you could become the next guitar shredding hero, why not try and mimic this first, since it's pure 80s guitar stuff.

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