he CD "No More Obscurity" is the debut release from 33 year-old German guitarist Rolf Munkes. He is accompanied by Gerald Kloos on drums, as well as several guests including drummer Anders Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen/Hammerfall) and vocalist Lance King (Balance of Power). Impressive guests to have on one's debut album, indeed. But Munkes' guitar is what takes center stage, as it should.
Munkes has a distinctive guitar-playing style characterized by clean, fast legato lines. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the shred-packed track 'Legatomizer'. Other highlights from this 14 track CD are: 'Message In A Bottle', a guitar-heavy cover of the tune by The Police; 'The Man Who Learned To Fly', an acoustic ballad featuring some nice vocal harmonies and reminiscent of something Night Ranger might have done; 'That's New', another legato-type track which showcases Munkes fast, clean playing; 'Tap That Thing', an instrumental rock shred-fest that reveals a bit of the jazz influence Munkes received from some of his guitar instructors over the years; 'Confuse Them All', which has some of the best soloing on the disc; and 'Up And Down', an absolutely beautiful acoustic instrumental ballad.
Shred fans will also appreciate a track called 'Mystic Overture' whic is basically a one minute, 16 second guitar solo, and a track called 'Drumatic' which is a killer drum solo. However, Munkes makes a point of saying on the back of the CD case that "There is no techno drum-machine anywhere on this album!" And I can tell you that the drumming is very good and very real on this disc.
For the guitar players out there, on this disc Rolf uses a Gibson ES-335TD (y.o.c.1972) and a Fender Stratocaster, equipped with an OBL pick-up in the bridge position and two DiMarzio pick-ups in the middle and neck positions, combined with a Rath-Amp (one of the first amps of the Retro 50 series). Thanks to Lion Music for that info.
I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't talk about a minor negative for a moment. Munkes' soloing can start to sound the same after a while. He'd do well to experiment with some different techniques a bit more to achieve a bigger "bag of tricks," as it were. But he is fast and clean, and for the most part the songs are well-written and that helps out tremendously.
"No More Obscurity" is worth picking up if you are a fan of fast, clean guitar playing and/or albums that feature a mix of instrumental and vocal material. Rolf Munkes shows a lot of promise as a guitarist and songwriter. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
Shred - 7
Production - 7
Vibe - 7
Songwriting - 6
Overall - 7
he CD "No More Obscurity" is the debut release from 33 year-old German guitarist Rolf Munkes. He is accompanied by Gerald Kloos on drums, as well as several guests including drummer Anders Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen/Hammerfall) and vocalist Lance King (Balance of Power). Impressive guests to have on one's debut album, indeed. But Munkes' guitar is what takes center stage, as it should. 
