Steve Vai has always been my go to guy for best of the wild guitarists. The guitarists that release solo CDs, not so they can sing, but so their guitar can. Well, I think Steve has been replaced now. John 5 has blown my mind something fierce.
I picked up God Told Me To, because I had a choice between two CDs and neither of which contained the only track I knew from him, which is Black Widow of La Porte. So, this album was a bit of a gamble and it paid off so hard.
One of the biggest reasons I'm switching from team Vai to team 5 is because of the diversity. Steve Vai pretty much has two modes to most of his songs. They are either slow and have a Jazz like feel to them, or are all bad ass with shredding. Of course I'm generalizing a bit, but compared to what I hear on this album, it's a fair way to describe it. The variety of John 5's music is fantastic. He let's you hear all of his influences, and there are a lot.
Let me explain it this way. The man does a cover of Micheal Jackson's Beat It, doesn't have a single note sung, and blows the song out of the water while sticking faithfully to the original music, and that's the lamest song on the entire album. An album that contains some kick ass cowboy riffing, and full metal shredding.
I can not stress enough how much this album needs to be in any serious music lovers collection, but I will try. I'm telling you that you must have this album, and you will not be sorry that you bought it.
Welcome To Violence is the only song on this entire album that has any form of vocals on it, and it's pretty much just a woman's voice (at least it sounds female). She's saying/telling/softly cooing "Play it again. Play it again my Johnny." It's a great way to open an album, but I think it's probably one of the weaker tracks on the album. It's so typically Metal.
This is followed up by one hell of a surprise. Beat It done completely instrumental, with John 5's guitar handling both the vocals and the guitar lines.
I know that John 5 shows his Country/Southern side of Asland Bump, where he delivers an accoustic performance that would have the hard old school country fans tapping their foot right along with any intelligent Metalhead that knows music.
Killafornia is epic sounding and wickedly awesome. This is like a giant movie score, and a very sweet treat to the ears. The Castle sees John back on the accoustic. This time he's delivering such a blistering performance that your mind should be blown. But this song is a lot more than just an accoustic shred, it's a multi faceted, intricately woven, tapestry of pure audio pleasure.
The Hill Of The Seven Jackals is pretty much a basic Metal shred song. This is like listening to a Steve Vai or Joe Satriani track from the early to mid nineties, but a tad bit more modern Metal sounding. It's probably the most stock song on the album, and it still is pure guitarist masterbation. I mean this is the height of Metal ecstacy. Let me put it this way. If the first track and this track are the worst this album has to offer then you will get a hell of a lot more than your money's worth out of this album.
Noche Acosador is another shining example of John 5's accoustic prowess. This Spanish influenced number not only has the notes dancing in your ears with pure delight, but it gives you the amazing chance to hear one of Metal's best modern guitarists busting out a song that you can dance to with such passion that it would make Antonio Bandereas in Desperado seem like a stumbling amateur.
Then it's back to real Heavy Metal for The Lust Killer. This is big, deep, thunderous Metal, with full shredding guitar harmonizing over top. It's not just shredding for the sake of shredding either. This guitar sings a story the likes of which could only be conveyed by Wagner writing the Gates of Hell opening. That's not the story I take from the instrumentation, it's just an idea of the essence of the sound.
The Lie You Live is pretty, and beautiful, and moving, and everything you'd want to hear in a song where emotion is clearly everything. Does that make this a slow, and soft song, devoid of any great technique? Oh, hell no. The tapping being done on this track is through the roof. Some might mistake it for Buckethead even. At least the untrained listener might. Some might mistake it for keyboards as well, but instead it's pure guitar skill you are hearing there.
Creepy Crawler finishes off the album completely differently than you would expect from a song with it's title. You would believe that it's about a gross disgusting spider and would be all scary sounding in the music. Now instead picture a spider carefully and peacefully designing it's web in some old barn loft with rays of sunshine cutting through the gaps in the wood to light it perfectly. That's what I hear in this song. Nature creating delicate beauty with fine fibers, woven with precision artistry.
This is my first John 5 album, but it will not be my last. I have a feeling I'm going to become a huge fan of this guitarist, and not just because he's played on some awesome Marylin Manson and Rob Zombie songs, but because his own material is so incredible on it's own.
9/10 - content
8/10 - production
10/10 - personal bias
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