Gus G - Quantum Leap (2021)

Country: Greece
Style: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 8 Oct 2021
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This is at once the easiest and one of the trickiest reviews that I've written thus far at Apocalypse Later. On one hand, if you like what Gus G does with Firewind or whoever else, then you're going to like this. It's that simple. On the other hand, it's hard to quite get a grip on what he does here, because it isn't always what we might expect.

For a start, it's an instrumental album, so presumably a lot more like his debut solo effort, Guitar Master from 2001, than his other albums under his own name, which feature a succession of guest vocalists and other musicians. However, there is a band here, even if nobody's specifically listed in that way: a drummer, a bassist and a keyboardist, who play across the entire album, which lends it a consistent feel. The only actual guest in the sense we tend to understand is fellow guitar wizard Vinnie Moore on the final track, Force Majeure.

For another, even though the feel is consistent and I wouldn't hesitate to call it heavy metal from a grand standpoint, it drops clearly into hard rock territory rather often. Sure, there's a whole lot of shredding going on and it fits well alongside the eighties instrumental shred albums that were everywhere at one point in time, but it often feels older, like Gus peeled solos off old masters and laid them over new backing that obviously benefits from 21st century production values.

Sure, a song like Fierce reminds most obviously of Slayer, even though it's never quite that heavy, but Not Forgotten brings both Def Leppard and Gary Moore to mind. The latter shows up as often as the expected Uli Jon Roth to my ears, Enigma of Life a neat take on both. One of my favourites here is Chronosthesia, which mixes modern djenty palm muting with seventies styles of rock music like prog and jazz fusion. It's a fascinating mix. Judgement Day may feel most recent in stylistic terms.

Averaging everything out, I'd say that there's more eighties than anything else. Night Driver may be the most overtly eighties piece here, because it's smooth and backed with music that could be lifted from an electronic rock movie soundtrack. However, there's Iron Maiden on a few tracks like Force Majeure and Quantum Leap. It's there right out of the gate on the former, but recognisable on the latter, with sections clearly inspired by Flight of Icarus and Flash of the Blade.

And, for a third, for all the soloing that Gus G contributes, these feel more like songs than they do flights of instrumental fancy. The riffs are strong and serve as great bedrock, but there are quite a few sections where they're what the songs are all about. I never felt at any point like the vocals were missing, as if this was meant to be a vocal album and the vocalist just didn't show up, so Gus G went ahead and released the instrumental version. But, every time I listen through again, I find that thought rattling around my brain again.

And that leaves me thinking that while this isn't a lesser album because of its lack of voice, it's not outside the realms of possibility that it could be elevated with them. That's an odd thought for an instrumental album, but it abides. Everything here sounds great, but it may not sound complete. But hey, if you like what Gus G does with Firewind or whoever else, then you're going to like this. It remains that simple.

Waqas Ahmed - A Perpetual Winter (2021)

Country: Romania
Style: Shred/Progressive Metal
Rating: 7/10
Release Date: 14 Nov 2021
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I reviewed Waqas Ahmed's debut album, Doomsday Astronaut, last year and he kindly sent me his new EP for review with its release date that's exactly one year after its predecessor. As you might imagine, the negative side is that it's short, its six tracks amounting to only seventeen minutes of time; three of them are very brief indeed, interludes reaching a minute or so each. We could well see them each as an intro to the more substantial song that follows it, which interpretation might call this a three track 12" single. The positive side is that it does everything we might expect from Ahmed, but in a more varied mix, so it's a good step forward.

Oddly, for a guitar shredder, the first of those tracks, Warrior in Time, is entirely electronic, but I should note that Ahmed plays almost everything here, not just the guitar: he's responsible for all the guitars, bass and drums and some of the keyboards, with only Sarmad Ghafoor helping out on the latter. I like how balanced this all is, because Ahmed is not a guitarist who can do other things, he's a true multi-instrumentalist, and he gives each of those instruments all his attention as if he hasn't ever seen anything else.

Really, Warrior in Time is a pleasant and peaceful intro to serve as a contrast to Demon Slayer, the track proper that follows it, because that gets right down to business with shredding straight out of the gate. I couldn't help but wonder exactly how quickly this one matches the note count of the opener and it has to be in mere seconds. It's a blitzkrieg of a song, a solid Guitar Hero challenge, but it's enjoyable to simply listen to with some slower sections, electronic parts in the background for flavour and a very liquid guitar tone that varies depending on where the song has got to. It's a portfolio piece, sure, but it's a fun journey for us too.

No Laughing Matter is the next song proper, after a brief interlude called The Hunt. This one adds some different elements to Ahmed's shredding, opening with a doomy riff that's soon echoed by that liquid guitar, as if angels are harmonising with demons. It certainly feels diabolical at points but it also gets bluesy for a while which makes us think that Ahmed has wandered on down to the crossroads, not to sell his soul but to challenge the devil for a guitar made of gold. The only thing that makes this feel any different is that the core theme that Ahmed returns to throughout is an infuriatingly catchy one, to the point that it could be a TV theme tune.

The final track is the title track, following a piano interlude with orchestration called Aftermath, and, to my mind, A Perpetual Winter is the best of the bunch. It starts heavy but gets soulful, with some delightful slower sections that are exactly what I was looking for more of in my prior review. I like Ahmed as a shredder; Demon Slayer is a lot of fun. But I like him more when he's playing like this, soaring above both strings and crunch. I also like the extra ethnic flavour, even it's restricted to hand drums early on, and the way he plays with modern dissonant chords later in the piece.

So, this is good stuff. I liked Ahmed's debut album but I like this more. The only thing I don't like is that it's so short, but hey, I'll take what I can get. What this really boils down to is a three track EP or single with intros to each that sound great but are quickly forgotten in the grand scheme of the release. Now I'm looking forward to his second album all the more. Thanks, Waqas!

Waqas Ahmed - Doomsday Astronaut (2020)

Country: Romania
Style: Shred/Progressive Metal
Rating: 6/10
Release Date: 14 Nov 2020
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I don't review many shred albums, but here's one that does a bit more than just showcase how nimble the fingers of the lead guitarist happen to be. This is worth listening to from the usual standpoint of admiring virtuoso technique, but it seems like it also wants to be listened to just as music, and I feel that it does a little more than usual on that front. This elevates Waqas Ahmed past the norm, even if he's not up there with Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore yet.

He's based in Sibiu, Romania, where he works as a guitar teacher, but he hails from Lahore, Pakistan, a combination that surprises me but hey, why not? Unless there's a burgeoning Pakistani community of musicians in Sibiu, I'm guessing that this album was recorded remotely, with the various musicians in different places, as the other names credited don't look remotely Romanian. To be fair, the backing is primarily there for Ahmed to solo over rather than jam with, but most songs seem to feature at least a little of both.

The style is progressive metal, played at a mid to fast pace, and everyone settles in for the flow. Many songs give the illusion of motion, as if the music is a river and they're just telling us in musical terms what the rapids are like. Given the titles, I doubt that was particularly intended, but it's there anyway, even on songs that bring in electronic decoration, like The Great Impostor or Supremacy. Both turn a little more abrasive, but they still sound like flows to me, even if they happen to be of molten iron or lava rather than water.

I'd have liked a little more slower material but Aniroc, at the heart of the album, and Blue Lemonade, towards the end, will have to do. The former is a slower and softer piece compared to the majority of the album and it highlights how smooth Ahmed's guitar tone can be, even if it powers up at points to roar rather than ooze. There's more dynamic play on this one too, with a quiet moment in the middle for solo piano and hints of strings, before Ahmed takes the helm again. As much as I enjoy the frantic opener, Arise Temujin, Aniroc is surely my favourite here and I wish there had been more tracks in this sort of vein.

Blue Lemonade is even softer but it takes a very different tack. I think it works really well for Ahmed, who gets to showcase another side of his playing, but I wasn't as thrilled with the rest of the "band", because the tinny electronic drums sound really cheap and the R&B stylings don't seem to fit. There's a demo after it to close out the album and, while the production is lesser quality than the album as a whole, the style of the backing fits Ahmed's guitar much better.

I feel odd calling out a different style of backing as a negative, as what else I'd have liked that I didn't find here pretty much at all is an ethnic flavour. After all, Ahmed is a Pakistani living in Romania; he's surely heard a lot of very different music, but there's a distinct lack of world music here. Outside the hand drums opening The Great Impostor, I can't place any.

And that's fine, because it clearly wasn't something Ahmed wanted to explore here, but this is still an instrumental metal album with guitar front and centre, so texture is an important factor. If he wants to be heard outside a niche world of guitar students, varying those textures is crucial and elements of world music would have made this a lot more accessible than it is. It's good stuff for sure but its hints at wanting to fill more than just one niche don't really pan out.