hortly after Kristina Johansson's EP had been delivered to my door step, editor-in-chief Chris Lambert slipped me this here first release by UK based guitarist Jay Parmar. Now as I mentioned in my review of Miss Johansson's offering, I'm not exactly a big fan of instrumental guitar music, so the prospect of having to sit through a whole album filled with this particular genre of music didn't quite get my blood pumpin'. To be honest I was convinced the album would sent me off to sleep somewhere halfway through but much to my surprise it succeeded in holding my attention for the full 43 min. and 55 sec.
Jay's biggest influence is former Dokken and Lynch Mob guitarist George Lynch and that really shines through in the stuff he recorded for his debut. Not so much on opening cut "I'm Having A Strange Day" that serves more as an intro but when "Kick It To The Kerb" took off, I would have sworn I was listening to the second part of the well known Dokken instrumental "Mr. Scary".
The sound of a Lamborghini engine leads into "El Diablo" and just like the rest of the songs on the album, this track sees Jay combining elements of '80's melodic rock with some virtuoso guitar playing while keeping a firm eye on melody.
On "LSD" and "Cool Times" another one of mister Parmar's heroes comes lurking around the corner, namely Steve Vai while "Perpetual Motion" has George Lynch written all over it again. The beautiful "Never Forget" not only has a haunting little melody but also features some of Jay's most emotional six string pyrotechnics. Clocking in at a little over 6 minutes this is my personal highlight of the album.
"Sacred Serpent", a track written a couple of years ago and named after our main man's previous web site, and especially the up tempo "My World" (that features a guest solo spot by fellow guitarist Chad Coggin) are sure to get the seal of approval by any aspiring guitar hero. Closing the disc is the aptly titled "The Final Chapter" a track that could easily be used during the end credits of an upcoming movie.
The strength of this here recording lies mostly in the song writing skills of Mr. Palmar and not so much in his ability to come up with mind boggling guitar techniques. The fact that he played all the instruments, completed the production work, wrote all the tracks and came up with the album's art work however wipes away any doubts that this is one very talented young man.
Right now Jay's in the process of writing new stuff and recently he recorded some lead guitar work on a track called "Heart Stop City" by his good friend Carlucci Ostling.
hortly after Kristina Johansson's EP had been delivered to my door step, editor-in-chief Chris Lambert slipped me this here first release by UK based guitarist Jay Parmar. Now as I mentioned in my review of Miss Johansson's offering, I'm not exactly a big fan of instrumental guitar music, so the prospect of having to sit through a whole album filled with this particular genre of music didn't quite get my blood pumpin'. To be honest I was convinced the album would sent me off to sleep somewhere halfway through but much to my surprise it succeeded in holding my attention for the full 43 min. and 55 sec.