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MARTY FRIEDMAN
Wall Of Sound
Prosthetic Records 2017

Marty Friedman’s career as a musician has taken him and us on quite a journey over the course of the last 30 years. Friedman was part of the cult act Hawaii and then went on to form the CACOPHONY with another young gunslinger Jason Becker. After Becker and Friedman went their separate ways Friedman went on to have a budding career as a solo artist; his record Dragon’s Kiss is evidence of this. When Friedman was hired be part of MEGADWETH--that was a huge upgrade for Mustaine and Co. I don’t need to tell you of the greatness that ensued with Rust In Peace, Countdown To Extinction, and Youthanasia. There were not so great times too but we won’t talk about those here. There were more solo efforts during the MEGADETH tenure; [his solo debut] Scenes is a good one, it even found Friedman re-envisioning “Thunder March” [from Dragon’s Kiss] as “Triumph” on this album.

After being dismissed or after he left MEGADETH, Friedman forged ahead with his career as a solo artist, there were more albums and Friedman relocated to Japan and immersed himself in the J-Pop scene [see Tokyo Jukebox]. In 2014 Friedman unleashed a rockin’ effort with Inferno and he decided to tour behind it with not one but two legs in North America. Needless to say that the album and the tour were both well received. Fans anxiously awaited Friedman’s next move and when word leaked that there would be another record the fans were delighted.

The album is Wall Of Sound and in it’s a continuation of where Inferno left off. Sure there are several over-indulgent moments on this album that could lead me to believe that Friedman is the dreaded ‘s’ word, I will refrain from using it because he gets bent about it and frankly it’s lazy. Friedman is an eclectic musician no questions as there are; thrash, prog-rock, metal, jazz-fusion, power-pop moments on Wall Of Sound. Instrumental records are a hard sell to the average listener; even if they followed a particular artist’s work with a ‘conventional’ band. Joe Satriani has mastered the art of drawing in a listener that wouldn’t otherwise buy an ‘all instrumental’ record [granted there’s vocal performances on the last two Friedman efforts]. I think Marty Friedman has gained some ground on Joe with Inferno and with the follow-up Wall Of Sound. If the tracks “Whiteworm”, “Streetlight”, “Self-Pollution” and the amazing “Meathook” don’t get a rise out of you--you’re soulless.

4.0 Out Of 5.0

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