REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: September 10, 2022

MARTY FRIEDMAN- One Bad M.F.

After having survived nearly 10 years in Megadeth working along side Mustaine (he should be awarded a medal for that), Marty took charge of his own career again, and has released a ton of albums since, whether that be studio or Live like this one. Marty has been living in Japan since 2003, and this was recorded live in Mexico City in 2018.

Some of his playing is absolutely blistering, and his band is killer as well. I mean the notes, riffs, and grooves on Elixir are crazy and not a note dropped. The intro to Inferno is crazy! It’s not just the pure shred, but the drums from Chargeeee (his mother must have been high) are incredible. There’s not really a let up, so when a slow song comes along it really stands out – Devil Take Tomorrow is pure gold as Marty shows he can play melody as well as the shred.

My favourite track is Mutation Melody as it has a killer chugga riff and a ripping driving groove that really pound along. The award for total insanity goes out to Ripped as it feels as though everyone is outdoing each other with a battery of notes and beats fired across the stage.

This is for lovers of over the top guitar and shred.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

WARRIOR SOUL – Drugs, God And The New Republic

I sort of ignored this band at the time as I lumped them in with all the grunge bands that flooded our ears in the early nineties. But Warrior Soul had a serious sleazy rock n roll groove with politically tinged lyrics.

Intro and Interzone are short and sharp, and Rust is sleaze rock n roll. The third track in Drugs, God And The New Republic is a huge chunk of post rock goodness that would not be out of place on a Killing Joke album. Main man, Kory Clarke, was a one man band come poet/solo artist before the band was formed, and some of the lyrics (like on The Answer) have that poet delivery.

There is a classic rock undertone to a lot of the songs, and Man Must Live As One has a killer old school riff and it is my favourite on the album. There is even a song with THAT RIFF – The Real Thing – every rock band will succumb and use it at some point. A very raw rock n roll album that I like a lot more now than I did back in the day.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.