Guitarist Adrian Galysh returns with a follow-up to the 2002 release, ‘King Friday’ called ‘Earth Tones’. It seems that the six year wait was spent with mostly local touring here in Southern California. He’s still very different to the “guitar god” title, in fact he’s beyond that because he doesn’t rely on flashy fast shredding. He’s one of the very few guitarists that knows when and where to add his gifted fret work.
Joining Galysh on ’Earth Tones’ are Marco Mendoza (Ted Nugent and Thin Lizzy) on Bass, Joey Heredia (Stevie Wonder, Frank Gambale, Scott Henderson) on drums. Special guests include Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot, House of Lords) on bass and Glen Sobel (Jennifer Batten, Gary Hoey, Tony MacAlpine) on drums on the track, “Planetary Cycles“, and Carl Verheyen (Supertramp) on second guitar on the track, “Terrestrial Races“.
While not 100% progressive, he does utilized genres in his music not associated with hard rock. In my limited association with guitar-driven rock instrumental albums, I believe Adrian is more on par with say Jeff Beck, than say Yngwie Malmsteen. Main reason is the passionate soulful guitar playing found especially on this album.
For quality, memorable and fun instrumental guitar playing, take a chance on Adrian Galysh and buy ‘Earth Tones’ as soon as possible. There’s enough rocking guitar and different styles to keep everyone happy. It simply doesn’t get any better than this.
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on July 13th, 2008
