Burn Halo: Up from the Ashes

Sep 20,2011
Big riffs, cool tones, and some clever layering of guitar textures make for an engaging listen on the band’s sophomore release. There’s gutpunch chunk on “Tear It Down,” lo-fi buzz on the title track, middle position Les More...

Night Ranger: Somewhere in California

Sep 20,2011
No real surprises here. If you like Night Ranger, you’ll love it. If you don’t, this probably won’t change your mind. The fact remains, though, that Brad Gillis and Joel Hoekstra dish out massive, high-gain rhythms and More...

Bringing Metal to the Children By Zakk Wylde

Sep 20,2011
Wylde takes a huge whack at his career in this book, starting from his first professional recording gig (holy s**t what a story!), which seems to have set the stage for everything he has done since. In the process of More...

Innerviews Music Without Borders Anil Prasad

Oct 10,2010
Anil Prasad established innerviews.org in 1994, and quickly gained a reputation among readers and artists for incisive and substantive journalism. Ten of the 24 interviewees here are guitarists—Martin Carthy, Michael Hedges, John More...

Sir Clive & the Raging Cartographers, Guitar Safari

Mar 6,2011
On this adventurous disc, guitarist/bassist Pete Prown, drummer Phil Robertson, and organist “Count d’Farfiso” dish up 11 tracks of raging “surf” music that is, um, all over the map, sounding like combinations of the B-52s, More...

Legendary Licks Ozzy Osbourne - The Randy Rhoads Years

Jul 1,2010
Instructor Danny Gill walks you step by step through eight killer Rhoads tracks. He’s a nice guy and a good teacher, and he takes things slow enough that no one will get lost. The “Flying High Again” chapter is worth the More...

Jake Hertzog, Evolution

Jan 18,2012
Jake Hertzog is one of the finest young jazz guitarists on the scene, and his two previous albums were chockablock with intriguing and even startling passages that signaled a fresh approach to the idiom. On his latest release, More...

Steinar Gregertsen Standing Next to a Mountain A Tribute to the Music of Jimi Hendrix

Feb 25,2011
Covering Hendrix tunes— let alone recording an entire album of them—is risky business. Yet in this case, the superb musicianship, sublime tones, and superlative arrangements justify the effort. Gregertsen’s lap-steel and More...

Bangtower Casting Shadows

Feb 25,2011
His stint in Quiet Riot notwithstanding, Neil Citron is better known as a rock producer and engineer than a guitarist. His formidable Beck- and Vai-inspired chops are front and center on this totally smoking fusion disc, More...

Sextus Devil Angel

Feb 1,2011
Pop-rock monster Eric Dover returns with infectiously catchy tunes, killer vocals, and tons of cool guitar tones and parts. Rave-up fuzz in “Show Me What You’re Working With,” spacerock distortion in “Another Lovesick Fool,” and More...

AC and DC High-Voltage Rock n Roll The Ultimate Illustrated History By Phil Sutcliffe

Feb 1,2011
This tome is a beautiful visual history of an amazing band, complete with stories of their beginnings, their steady rise to fame, and the shocking loss of frontman Bon Scott. Then you get the story of the group’s second career, More...

The Rolling Stones Ladies amp Gentlemen The Rolling Stones

Feb 1,2011
Rescued from obscurity, restored, and remastered, this film shot in 1972 captures the horn-enhanced Exiles-era Stones in glorious form. Glam-y prancing Jagger, masterfully rhythmic Keef, steadfastly and tastefully propulsive More...

Matt Stevens Ghost

Aug 19,2010
North London-based Stevens has made a name for himself on the Interwebs, especially among the avant-garde underground, largely due to savvy social networking. On this quirky, inventive, mostly upbeat, and entirely delightful More...

Matt Blackett's April Faves

Apr 16,2012
UFO Seven Deadly Vinnie Moore continues to kick major ass on UFO’s latest. All the guitars sound great, but definitely check out the killer chugs on “Mojo Town,” the sustain-y EBow-ish lines in “Angel Station,” the More...

Visual Feast: Neil Zlozower's 'Eddie Van Halen'

Apr 16,2012
Sage advice has it that getting in at the beginning is far better than getting in somewhere thereafter. Such is the case with IPOs, pyramid scams, and relationships with ingénue bands. Today, Van Halen has been a legendary More...

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