BITTER SUITES FROM THE RED ROOM
by Shane Gaalaas
(Junkman Records)
Drummer extraordinaire, Shane Gaalaas (B'z) returns with his fourth overall and first ever all-instrumental recording, 'Bitter Suites From The Red Room'. For those of you who aren't familiar with Shane Gaalaas he is one of the most amazing innovative drummers around. Period. Before playing with The B'z, He landed gigs with Swedish guitar god YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, followed by a stint with the MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, as well as tours and albums with VINNIE MOORE, ULI JON ROTH, and GLENN HUGHES, among others. In the late 90’s, he was a founding member of highly regarded progressive band COSMOSQUAD as well as extreme metal quartet DIESEL MACHINE. This dude is freaking SICK! On, 'Bitter Suites From The Red Room' Shane Gaalaas stretches the limits of his musical abilities. Not only does he play drums on the album, he also did all programming and rhythm guitars as well as the bulk of the bass and lead guitars. It is simply mind blowing that someone can conceptualize & compose this kind of stuff let alone perform it to this degree. The compositions on this album are extremely complex and never really lets the listener get too comfortable with the deep grooves before the piece moves to the next tantalizing yet tension filled musical theme. Highlights are, "El Niño Overture", "Silverstrand Sedation", "Grind 2.0 (The Salacious Elixir)", featuring Tak Matsumoto of The B'z, "Wherever Giorgio Dare Roam" featuring Jeff Kollman on guitar and "Ototoxic Gaalbladderas". After a few times through it all starts to make more musical sense and the ideas start to take on some relative familiarity. So as a instrumental music fan I highly recommend this album to all the like minded freaks out there looking for more brain candy. 'Bitter Suites From The Red Room' offers a refreshing take on the jazz rock-fusion thing. Can music be smooth and jagged at the same time? Can it calm you and excite you in the very same breath? Somehow, this album finds a way. Or, at least, it does for me. - Highly Recommended
Tony @ The Dedicated Rocker Society
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