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 | |  Gus G. - I Am The Fire (2014) Album Review | |
Gus G. - I Am The Fire (2014)
Century Media -- Running Time 45.22
SCORE
9/10
If you haven't heard of Gus G. in the last few years then you've more than likely been stranded on a desert island or similar! Probably best known, since 2009, as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist he has had a much longer career and has already amassed an impressive back catalogue of albums with his own band Firewind and others. I first became aware of him through his tenures with both Mystic Prophecy and the bonkers but utterly brilliant Dream Evil (who's 'The Book Of Heavy Metal' was one of my fave releases of 2004). I've been a fan of Firewind since 2006 and his debut with Ozzy 'Scream' (2010) was the big O's best album since 'No More Tears'. Not content with all of this he is now back with his debut solo album 'I Am The Fire' and rather than it being an instrumental affair he has done a Slash/Dave Grohl (Probot) project and roped in a lot of mates and well known musicians to play with and the result is twelve barnstorming tracks that perfectly suit the various people taking part. Gus G. has yet again proved what an outstanding guitarist and songwriter he is!
Genre wise 'I Am The Fire' sits somewhere between his Power Metal roots and something he would do with Ozzy. This is more Heavy Rock than out and out Metal but it's no less successful and the guitar playing is, as you would expect, incendiary. Opening with two tracks 'My Will Be Done' and 'Blame It On Me' sung by current Candlemass (and ex Yngwie Malmsteen) vocalist Mats Levén is a fabulous double punch to the stomach. Anyone who has heard Mats sing knows what a superb voice he has. We also get vocals contributions from Blake Allison (Devour The Day), Alexia Rodriguez (Eyes Set To Kill), who sings a blinder on 'Long Way Down', Michael Starr (Steel Panther) who proves he doesn't have to sing about Asian Hooker's to be fabulous, Jeff Scot Soto, who on 'Summer Days' out Journey's Journey, Jacob Bunton (Adler) and Tom Englund (Evergrey) who is never less than brilliant. There are also two thunderous instrumental tracks 'Vengeance' and 'Terrified' featuring David Ellefson (Megadeth) and all round bass god Billy Sheehan respectively. There are no weak tracks here and even though they differ in styles everything fits together wonderfully well. This is certainly not an album of one off performances. It all sounds very together and that's because Mr G. has the ability to play more than one genre of rock!
If Gus does another solo album and continues to go down the Slash route and pick just one vocalist from this bunch then Mats Levén is the way to go, I will just say though that there is a vocalist missing here who I think would compliment him perfectly and that is...Jorn Lande. Get those two together and they might just crack the earth's crust. That's just me daydreaming though, in the meantime 'I Am The Fire' is an album all fans of Metal and Rock should appreciate and just tell me Gus G. has no feel n his playing because I will argue with you until the sun goes down and beyond!
https://www.facebook.com/officialgusg
http://www.gusgofficial.com/
https://twitter.com/gusgofficial
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireTV
https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
Review written exclusively for Brutiful Entertainment by Rick Tilley
www.facebook.com/richard.tilley.351
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