Perpetual Burn

Perpetual Burn

Track Listings

1. Altitudes

2. Perpetual Burn

3. Mabel's Fatal Fable

4. Air

5. Temple of the Absurd

6. Eleven Blue Egyptians

7. Dweller in the Cellar

8. Opus Pocus

Tracks:

Altitudes
Perpetual Burn
Mabel's Fatal Fable
Air
Temple Of The Absurd
Eleven Blue Egyptians
Dweller In The Cellar
Opus Pocus

Customer Reviews:

A classic shredder album.......2007-04-18

Who needs a song by song review by some schlep? That always kills me.
Bottom line, this is guitar playing at a talent level most will never reach or even relate to. If you like or appreciate rock guitar, this is a must have. Very underrated guitar player, cruelly dealt a bad hand while in his prime. Very deserving of your purchase.

Dweller in the cellar.......2007-02-17

I have never heard anything quite like "Dweller in the cellar" as far as emotional content, I was (of course) Blasting this whole album as loudly as possible in the car the other day and got so caught up in the emotion of this song that I found myself in tears! Probably freaking out the other drivers around me as well.
Like a tragic opera
I can see (hear) the story of this woeful wraith alone with moan, and sorrow locked within this cellar, shrieking, screaming and wailing to be set free, The horror! The fear amplified by the darknress; The anger.
When this beautiful misery ends at the triumphant break, this is where I picture the callar door finally flung open and our sad little wraith is set free, truely joyous and free to run in the sunlight, until the outro, when the mood changes...and our wraith becomes beast seeking only his revenge on those who imprisoned him. Powerful stuff!

One of the shredder classics........2007-01-29

I recently got this for the first time: something I should've owned many moons ago. anyway, so here's a song by song review of this neo-classical shredder "classic" for those who do not yet own this and are just looking for something more about "that Jason Becker guy they saw on you-tube"...

Altitudes: slowish tempo and starts out with some pretty and clean-toned melodic gutiar... breaks into a sweep-picking section followed by a flat/alternate-picking section, both of which are enormously fast, back to some melodic/heavier guitar... then an interesting tapping section, with the stuff in your left ear slightly different and complementary to what's in your right ear: very impressive from a composition standpoint... then what sounds like an improv'ish solo, back into the main theme pretty much until the end. Overall, daunting guitar: the sweep picking and the two-channel tapping pieces are exciting and interesting, but overall the rest of it is, while challenging, just not the most interesting thing around: you've heard it before from YJM, V.Moore, Macalpine, Gilbert, Batio, (etc...) ...would be a great study piece, though. (4/5)

Perpetual Burn: very fast, insane, all over the place, (etc...) but again: you've heard this a million times before from all the various shredders (especially Yngwie), and in general the different sections don't hold together into a cohesive whole all that well... truly mind-boggling from a technical difficulty standpoint, though. (4/5)

Mabel's Fatal Fable: intro is interesting and good at the start of its resolution, but that same resolution takes far too long to resolve... next section is just great though: like some high-octane Paganini or some such - just the sort of stuff you LOVE from a neo-classical shredder: cleanly played and ultra-high speed and very classical feel to it. Beautiful!!! The final outro section is also very interesting and somewhat eerie sounding - this is tied with "Air" for my favorite on the CD. (5/5)

Air: this is sheer brilliance - everything fits nicely together and it's just a thing of sheer beauty... not heavy at all, but that's not a problem to me... dual clean-toned guitars complementing and occcasionally counterpointing each other... (from what I understand, much of it was performed with both parts on just one guitar, but even if that's a rumour, it's still an absolutely brilliant and beautiful composition). No complaints here at all: flawless... this is the one that, regardless of what you hear in the next ten or twenty years, you'll keep coming back to it. All others on this album are, by comparison, expendable. This one is not. Pure genius. (5/5)

Temple of the Absurd: features Marty Friedman and really is a speedy, chunky, shred-fest, as you might expect... a bit loose and uninteresting in terms of composition, though. But not without it's jaw-dropping moments: kinda cool to listen to the two guys in each channel, playing such difficult stuff in perfect unison... but while that's cool and something to bear witness to, unfortunately you won't keep coming back for the music itself... (unless you like freakishly fast chugging on the low strings with Friedman/Becker solos over the top). Marty's solos are actually very interesting: it seems as though Jason is a bit more overtly neo-classical, while Marty possesses something that's distinctly his own "style". Overall: fun with some high points, but a bit forgettable. (3/5)

Eleven Blue Egyptians: eastern sounding until the end resolves with a blues jam... the eastern feel bears some resemblance to Vai's "Fire Garden Suite" (especially if you include Bangkok)... unfortunately for Jason, Vai really puts together a MUCH more interesting composition. On the flip side there is some jaw-dropping going on here, but the blues jam at the end seems disconnected. A lot of people like this but I find it a little disjointed and lacking in composition. It's fun, and is the only spot on the CD where he just bangs out some stuff over a blues rhythm, but I'd rather they just made a single song based thereupon, rather than sticking at the end of an otherwise eastern-sounding thing. (3/5)

Dweller in the Cellar: holds together pretty well: he's going for a spooky vibe here and captures it well, which makes it slightly more interesting than some of the other selections on the CD, but with that said, it isn't THAT interesting, and hold your interest for over six minutes... but if you do manage to last through the first five minutes, you are rewarded with some excellent quality "neo-classical shredding" at the end, which fits the rhythm exceptionally well... I wish the whole song were more like the ending, though. (3/5)

Opus Pocus: much like the first song, but a bit more melodic and interesting while being a bit less stunning... but not without it's jaw-dropping moments, though: there's a sweep-picking section here that's incredible, and overall the composition isn't bad. (4/5)

Overall: 4/5... very good stuff: an early shred-metal classic... this is strikingly similar to Malmsteen's early work... really rips of the fretboard. For good, classic shredding, get this and YJM's Rising Force... you'll get a few songs from each that stay on your play-list for decades to come.

Aside: I question the drums in spots on this CD: in some spots it sounds almost as though the guitar parts were recorded first, and then they had Atma Anur (a very good drummer) listen in headphones a few times and then bang away until they got a decent take... but as good as the guy is, they just don't always sound very fitting or entirely that well thought out... in these days of perfect synchronicity between, say, Portnoy and Petrucci, the drums on here just don't always cut it.

Shred or Dead.......2006-11-03

Virtuosity. To sum this album up in one word. This is composing at its best proving once more that Jason Becker isn't a guitarist, he's a Musician. This is an absolout MUST have for any fan of guitar driven music like shred for example. Forget Yngwie, forget Gilbert, forget Ziras. This is Jason Becker. Difficult to pick out high-lights in such an amazing album, but the song "Perpetual Burn" stands out for me. Harmonies so fantastic, Bach would roll in his grave. Even Becker's old pal Marty stops by to play with him on a few of the tracks such as "Dweller in the Cellar". This is an instrumental CD setting the standard for guitarists all over. I took years trackin this CD down, and here's amazon offering it you for, what will be, the best pennies you have ever spent.

Perpetually Burning.......2006-08-30

Regardless of what anyone else tells about "mindless guitar playing," "wanking," and "non-emotional songs," this album is an essential for anyone with ears. And it's definitely necessary for any guitarist.

Just for a bit of background, Jason had a lot of these songs running through his head back in his early Cacophony days (Check out the Rasberry and Blackberry Jams to find out what I'm talking about). He finally had a chance to write them out and record them with Mike Varney on Shrapnel after Cacophony fell apart. Unfortunately (for us at least), Jason never had a chance to write another all out shred album for us (At least not an album with him manning the guitar) because he was recruited as David Lee Roth's main axe-slinger shortly after releasing the album (Sort of like how Marty was recruited in Megadeth shortly after releasing Dragon's Kiss). But, anyways, now onto the review.

This album is a musical masterpiece, completely instrumental, and full of twisted melodies and 64th note, 6-string sweeps. I love every song on this album, but that's just me. The standout tracks are:
1. Altitudes - The crowd favorite, or so it seems. It's full of emotion and beauty, and it's my belief that this song was Jason's baby. It's a beautiful composition full of amazing melodies and complex guitar licks.
2. Perpetual Burn - The title track, this one is blazing. I wouldn't call it as ripe in melody as Altitudes is, but it's still a great track. The pure speed of the song is enough to impress (Although that's not the only reason to enjoy it).
3. Air - The song that brough Jason into the neo-classical scene. I still don't consider him to be a neo-classical guitarist per se, but I still think this song is a great piece. When I first heard it, I thought it was 2 guitars playing different parts, which is true in a few parts, but for the majority of the song it's just Jason playing 2 parts simultaneously, classical style. It's a great piece, and one heck of a finger twister to play.
4. And last but not least, Eleven Blue Egyptians - Marty's guest solos in this song were enough to make me love it the first time I heard it. In a way, it reminds me of a few Cacophony songs, the heavy riffing and the dual guitars firing off in both channels. It's a great song though, well thought out, and well executed. But the dueling solo between Marty and Jason is really the climax of the song, check it out.

I personally recommend every song on this album, and all of Jason's other works, as well as Marty's, and if you enjoy all of those, look into Cacophony. Just do some digging, if you truly enjoy shred and are a fan of the guitar gods, there's always someone out there who will point you in the right direction.