ow, if none of you know who this guy is, I would advise leaving my web site at once and going to a music chatroom and start taking notes! As far as I'm concerned, if you mention "Cacophony" or "Marty Friedman"...Jason Becker is in the same sentence or paragraph. I understand he was with David Lee Roth but unfortunately, no one cared at that time. Why do I say that? Well, we had the old days of Dave already with "Skyscraper" etc. and everyone just pretty much got sick of DLR's crap with Van Halen-- it was all bad timing in my opinion despite Jason made that band great like Vai did when DLR was solo earlier years back. "Too Little Isn't Enough" was already in the "bargain bin" six months after release....people fail to mention things like that and I was disappointed to see that and seemed no one gave it a chance due to all the DLR crap.
I first heard of Jason through my good friend Ken Madei, who I've mentioned quite a few times in this section due to his dedication to instrumental guitar and fusion artists. I started on Cacophony "Speed Metal Symphony", then to "Dragon's Kiss" and finally, "Perpetual Burn"; totally insane, bizarre and amazing for me at first..never heard anything like this at all in my days of starting out in metal. Weeks later I jumped on all the releases by Cacophony and both Becker and Friedman's solo cassettes. I was a happy camper!
I'm not going to dwell on Jason's fight with Lou Gehrig's Disease but damn it, it hit him way too early in his career. I'm sure he feels the same and how he copes with it is another story, but I do miss his music and this 2-CD release has to be the nicest thing I have ever came across that puts all of it's heart and soul, including the musicians on it to one man who has inspired so many..even Friedman himself as noted in the liners, in such short time and this was all done totally for FREE because everything made off this CD goes to Jason and his family; that has to be the most unselfish thing I've seen in a long time besides the Chuck Schuldiner benefits/concerts and collections going on as we speak while he fights cancer.
31 songs you get and very many artists to mention of great caliber...Kollman, Martone, Eklundh, Moore, Poland, Scheetz, Munkes, Pilson, Rob Johnson, the girls from Phantom Blue, Ron Keel's Ironhorse and many, many more! Definitely will be sought after and a classic release. Comes with huge booklet with liner notes, comments on Jason and to Jason and comments by Jason as well with photos which I was a bit offended. Why would you put a pic of Jason in there with his tubes all exposed? A bit distasteful and we already got the picture by reading the stories, we don't need the visuals and if it was Jason's choice, there has to be a good reason why....there was no real need for it...you are a true guitar hero and despite circumstances, your mark on originality has made that much impact that I don't see how anyone would ever forget...I know I won't...I still play everything faithfully.
ow, if none of you know who this guy is, I would advise leaving my web site at once and going to a music chatroom and start taking notes! As far as I'm concerned, if you mention "Cacophony" or "Marty Friedman"...Jason Becker is in the same sentence or paragraph. I understand he was with David Lee Roth but unfortunately, no one cared at that time. Why do I say that? Well, we had the old days of Dave already with "Skyscraper" etc. and everyone just pretty much got sick of DLR's crap with Van Halen-- it was all bad timing in my opinion despite Jason made that band great like Vai did when DLR was solo earlier years back. "Too Little Isn't Enough" was already in the "bargain bin" six months after release....people fail to mention things like that and I was disappointed to see that and seemed no one gave it a chance due to all the DLR crap.