Band: GTRMAN
Band Website: www.myspace.com/thegtrman
Label: Independent Release
Release Date: 2008
I’ve come
to realize that the musical side of Myspace is a pretty cool deal. It provides a democratic, open forum for everyone to display their
skills. Certainly for a genre like progressive rock music that has constantly been shut out of the market by the major labels Myspace
has been a godsend. Case in point GTRMAN and the disc Blackened. This is the music and performance of one Dennis Williams based in
The eleven tracks here, all pretty much instrumental, are
first and foremost quite a technical display of guitar playing. Piano and other keyboards do show up from time to time, but this is
first and foremost a guitar based CD and sometimes it gets really heavy. But while the sounds are definitely from the prog-metal realm,
the musical composition is clearly from the classical side. The structure and musical arrangements of these compositions is quite
complex and at first you might be forgiven for thinking it’s just not going anywhere. But on repeated playings one starts to hear
the different levels of musical performance and it actually helps to know and think of this as more of a ‘metal symphony’, because
then the musical structure begins to make perfect sense. Track 4 – “March into Hades” [9:58] reminds me of Therion with its massed
choirs and dramatic opening theme. Other times the music can be actually quite soft and reflective with Williams use of acoustic classical
guitar such as “The Final Farewell” [5:15] or the more keyboard oriented “Lost and the Undiscovered Soul” [7:39]. He also makes great
use of sound effects and dialog loops to help convey the drama of the story. The second track “Platoon/Plight of Man” [14:48] is a
good example of this where you hear voice clips from the movie Platoon with some atmospheric music in the background. Overall the
more you think of this work as a symphonic piece in terms of structure and style the more you come to appreciate what William’s has
created.
Blackened – A Heavy Metal Symphony in the Key of “A”nger is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
But if you enjoy the music created by guitarists such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Vinnie Moore, Joe Satriani or you can really appreciate
some amazing guitar pyrotechniques then this is a disc I think you’ll really get into. Whether you’re looking for searing guitar solos,
or some crunchy-double kick-drum moments you’ll find that and a whole lot more to satisfy your cravings from GTRMAN.
