Wyrd

Wyrd is New York area guitarist Greg Rapaport's third solo venture and has a lot of new ideas and interesting sounds. All instrumental (except for sampled spoken word sound bytes) the compositions mix and meld prog-metal, jazz, rock and funk. Rapaport has no problems taking jazzy chord progressions and soloing over them with ferocious, no-holds-barred metal/shred licks. Truly a one-man band, Rapaport handles all the instrumentation, production and engineering - did we mention artwork and design? Overall, the material leaves no doubt you are listening to a more-than-proficient guitarist with some great ideas. Highlights include "11th Portal" and "Trust", with a creativity award going to "Mahdah" for its stylistic blend.