Heavy Maytal - Gus G : "STEEL BURNER"

If it were not for the fact that I am dedicating this month to more traditional metal, I might have let Gus's new solo album fly under my radar. But that would have been a shame because he is obviously metal as fuck, having played with Ozzy and Firewind. He brings in some guest vocalists like Doro Pesch, who is a legend, but they have only added more grit to her pipes. Unlike one of my favorite metal singers who lends his pipes to the track 'Dancing With Death", the motherfucking incredible Matt Barlow.  Who sounds awesome, and this is going to be a tough song for them to beat. It sounds like he just stepped out to the goddamn "Darksaga" sessions to lay these vocals down, unbelievable. 

Then it's back to the instrumentals. I braced myself for the shredding, which is not normally my thing, but he used a manner of restraint on "Advent." His playing is pretty melodic here. If you are a guitarist under 40, chances are you are going to be all up in this. "What If" moves a more synth-wave-like groove before succumbing to the need for shredding. He brings on Ronnie Romero for "Frenemy". Which works well enough, it has a rock shuffle to it, and Romero's voice sounds rooted more deeply in the 80s. 

Dino Jelusick from Whitesnake tackles the vocals on "No One Has to Know." It is easy to understand why he is doing backing vocals for Whitesnake, as he sounds just like Coverdale. I imagine he sounds better than Coverdale does these days. 'Confession" is the obligatory blues instrumental, which is very tasteful and works well. It does build up into a more metallic solo, but remains pretty melodic. "My Premonition" finds Ronnie back to tackle a more Tony Martin-era Sabbath power ballad. "Closure is the kind of instrumental you expect from him, but very well done and not as over the top as I feared. I will give this album a 9.5, as when it comes to shredding metal, he does a great job of it.

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