CD review, May 09. Nico's Alchemy - Fundamental Darkness (Dirty Dog Records)

A bunch of thoughts, or more accurately, guitar players, run through my mind as I spin this. We start with Dave Gilmour and run through the usual suspects, Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani, etc. I’m not well versed in the shredding genre but at least I appreciate this is an attempt to add a little melody, though let there be no doubt this is a guitar showboating rock album. If that’s your thing, you’ll likely love this, if not, it may well leave you cold. The songs themselves are melodic rock like the 80’s never happened. Well someone out there must like it. Save Me Jesus actually has a pretty groovy main riff carrying it along which I could happily have more of, but that’s about it for me. The rather mellow Leap In Space sounds like a The Streets backing track before it’s back to some more melodic shredding. Guns N Roses’ Slash couldn’t sell albums like this, though they were much better, but I guess that’s no reason these guys shouldn’t try.