GREG RAPAPORT - "WYRD" (SPLINTERHEAD)

 

Greg Rapaport is a jazz/fusion/progressive guitarist (and a pretty good webmaster from what I can see) from New York. His home studio had enabled him to produce three guitar solo CDs, "Waiting for Darker Skies" (1998), "Artifacts" (1999) and the most recent "Wyrd" (2001).

On "Wyrd" he most prominently displays his talent of mixing jazz and prog metal genres while at the same time using intense shred licks to provide his music with a sharp edge. Listen to the album opener, "11th Portal", for some very dense, multi-layered guitar work. "Mahdah" and "Bugjuice" are more straightforward jazzy tracks, with a clear guitar sound. "The Unconscience" is more groovy, quite excellent in fact. The album closer, "Darkmatter" is a more recognisable metal track.

Greg Rapaport's limit is noticeable on the other half of the tracks. It is very difficult to write an album of instrumental guitar music, especially if the tracks are more than a few minutes long. Some of the themes get repeated a little too often, and not all of the tracks are equally memorable. Apart from that, my only minor gripe with "Wyrd" is that it could benefit a lot from a human drummer.

RK

 

Written June 2002

 

Go to the Official Greg Rapaport site

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