New Tosin Abasi / Animals as Leaders -style slap guitar riffs on my Ibanez 7 string

Came up with a few more riffs utilizing the thumb techniques i demonstrated in the Animals as Leaders video i posted the other day! I recorded this late last night and thought i would share. These riffs are all downward/upward slaps, and left hand hammer-ons. Enjoy!

Meshuggah Corridor of Chameleons guitar cover video. Ibanez RG7 with DiMarzio D Activator 7 Neck in the bridge

One of my favorite Meshuggah tracks off their immortal Chaosphere album! I really like the structure (or lack thereof) in this song. The original song is tuned down a half step (Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Bb eb), but i am playing here in drop A tuning.
I am playing Damien, my custom mahogany Ibanez RG7. I am using the bridge pickup this whole video, and it is kind of an odd choice… this is the DiMarzio D Activator 7 NECK model. Steve Blucher from DiMarzio said that i would really enjoy that pickup in the bridge, and BOY was he right. This is one of the buried treasures of 7 string pickups. This guitar has always sounded dark, no matter what pickup i put in it, but now it is clear as a bell, INSANELY tight, and handles low tunings effortlessly. I will say, if you put this pickup in an already bright-sounding guitar, it’d probably make your eyes water. But if you have a dark guitar that needs some clarity, this is THE pickup!
I am playing through my Peavey Triple XXX head and Avatar 2×12 cab here. No mods. Thanks for watching! Post other songs you’d like to see!

Fear Factory “Self Bias Resistor” guitar cover

I don’t exactly listen to Fear Factory very often, but i love playing their stuff. Dino is a total monster rhythm player and writes some of the tightest riffs ever of all time ever the end. I made this Self Bias Resistor cover video last night. I am playing The Duke, my swirled Ibanez RG7421 with the Dimazrio Air Norton in the neck and the Dimarzio D Sonic in the bridge, and i’m playing through my old trusty Line 6 AX212. Best practice amp ever. Enjoy!

Me covering “An Infinite Regression” by Animals as Leaders

Made a quick video on my phone of me playing the intro to this awesome song! I figured it out sometime last month and have been spending some time working on it. I play it a little differently that Tosin… he first does a left-hand tap on the f# note, then a left hand tap on the C# note; then, on that same C# note, he does a downward slap with his thumb, an upward slap with his thumb, a pop with his index, then a pop with his middle.This is a technique that Victor Wooten started, as far as i know. Instead of doing thumb down/thumb up/index/middle, i simply use thumb down/thumb up/thumb down/thumb up. I can keep my attack more consistent this way. I have really straight thumbs, so maybe that has something to do with it! I’ve tried showing a few other people this technique and they say it just feels weird. I dunno. i love it, and i’ve been writing a ton of riffs using this technique. More videos soon!

So this was recorded with my Blackberry Torch, so the video quality isn’t exactly award-winning. I’m playing through my Roland Micro Cube. The guitar is my beloved mahogany Ibanez RG7 Damien. This guitar has the Dimarzio D-Activator Neck model in the bridge (possibly my favorite bridge pickup ever), an unused Rio Grande Muy Grande single in  the middle, and a Dimarzio Blaze Custom in the neck. The Blaze Custom is kinda funny, though…. for one, its a bridge pickup. But also, i’ve somehow mucked up the wiring for it… it definitely doesn’t sound like a humbucker! Its more like an overwound single coil or P90 type of sound; its very pretty, very percussive, and SUPER clear. I can even play rhythm stuff on it and it sounds great. So yeah, i don’t know what i did to it, but i like it and i’ll probably not be changing it!

Josh’s top 2011 albums

Thanks to everyone who read my list! Be sure to check out my Main Man in Savannah’s blog to hear about his top hits: http://amusiciansreview.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-11-albums-of-2011.html

 

Oh! And how could i have forgotten to add The Lonely Island’s “Turtleneck and Chain” to my list???? A comic joy. I have maybe listened to this one more than any other album this year. 

Favorite track: THREW IT ON THE GROUND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAYL5H46QnQ

Ben’s best albums of 2011

While 2011 was the most hectic and stressful year of my entire life, i had a lot of great music to help me keep my cool. Most all of my favorite bands released something new this year, and with very few exceptions, they all lived up to the hype! I can see myself going back and editing this several times to add in albums i forgot about, so i’ll just throw out the first few that come to mind. This is in no particular order.

Mastodon “The Hunter”- Mastodon is one of my all time favorite bands! I’ve followed them ever since i saw the video for “March of the Fire Ants” on MTV2 years and years ago, right when Remission came out. The band has just come off a streak of 3 concept albums in a row, concluding with the incredible “Crack the Skye”, so i wasn’t sure how they would follow that one up. The Hunter is a collection of concise, tightly-written fun songs, none of which go much past the 4 minute mark (if i recall). There are some great guitar solos, but very little of the instrumental proggy sections that have been so prominent in their sound for the past few years. But then again, the songs just don’t need them and they wouldn’t have fit in anyway. The album is the band’s high water mark for vocals, and the guitar tones are fantastic. Overall, it really sounds like they had a ton of fun writing this one, and i greatly respect that they didn’t succumb to the pressure to become the epic prog band that everyone seems to want them to be. 

Favorite track: Blasteroid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr8tgjtSpQ8

Foo Fighters “Wasting Light”- an awesome return to form for what i consider to be the best rock band out there. Killer production, awesome songwriting, and very little to complain about. The songs are really tightly-written, its all really catchy… its just a killer rock album from start to finish.

Favorite track: These Days http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q73Jb8ChjuM

 

Animals as Leaders “Weightless”- okay, this one probably takes the cake for my favorite album of the year. I had high hopes for this one, and it WAY exceeded my expectations! Tosin’s playing has taken a quantum leap from the first album to this. He seriously must have spent the past few years doing nothing but working on his technique, meditating atop Mount Doom. There is some guitar playing on here that can’t be compared to anything anyone has ever done.

I must also mention the other AAL dudes, Javier and Navene, who both make their debut on Weightless. The first album was just Tosin and Misha Mansoor (of Periphery), but this album is the first true AAL collaborative effort. Javier is an incredible guitarist, and Navene’s drumming is pretty damn amazing. Tosin seems to get all the acclaim, but we can’t forget that this band wouldn’t be what it is without the other 2/3rds of it!

There are a few small things about the album that bug me (guitars are too heavily noise-gated, kick drum is a little thin and clicky, plus its too loud, stuff like that), but that’s just nitpicky stuff. If they don’t get a Grammy nod at least for “best instrumental”, i will be so beyond pissed.

Favorite track: its really hard to choose!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNYx2OpGK4

Opeth “Heritage”- this album seemed to really upset a lot of their fanbase. There are no 12 minute long epic songs, hardly any distorted guitars, hardly any double bass, no screaming, no sleep, no food no nothiiiing….. Its a very 70′s prog sort of album. Its easy to draw comparisons between this and their other “soft” album, Damnation, but they couldn’t be more different. I have to applaud Opeth for not caring what their fanbase expects of them, but following their creative intuition and doing what they felt like they should do (same way i felt about The Hunter). The album has great production! It sounds very natural, warm, and uncompressed. Mike’s vocals are fantastic. The guitars have a totally different sound than previous Opeth albums; if i were to guess, i think they used Strats for pretty much everything! Its like they borrowed Richie Blackmore’s guitar rig to record with or something.

Martin Axenrot’s drumming was a big highlight for me. After hearing his work on Watershed, i thought that he was a good metal drummer, but lacking the subtlety of former Opeth drummer Martin Lopez. I definitely retract that statement. Axenrot really shines on this one and delivers some nice jazzy drumming with just enough flair.

Even though i love the album, there are a few songs that i feel have zero flow whatsoever, and are really just terribly put together. Songs like “Famine” just feel like a bunch of randomly throw-together ideas that have nothing to do with one another. Its like the scraps and loose bits that fell off of the well-composed songs got thrown together to form other mutant, mongrel filler songs. But there are just a few of them, and the rest of the material is golden! Plus, Kate and i spent a lot of time listening to this album right after we moved into our new house, so i’ll always associate it with happily unpacking boxes, painting walls, and starting something new for ourselves in our first home.

Favorite track: I Feel the Dark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at7nIxemKjc

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers “I’m With You”- Following the departure of guitarist John Frusciante, i was really worried about what RHCP was going to do next… i figured whoever they got to fill John’s shoes would either A) try his hardest to sound like John and piss off all the fans, or B) do something completely different from John and piss off all the fans. Josh Klinghoffer went with option B), and i love it. The music on “I’m With You” is really fun, fresh, and feels like it was written by a bunch of guys having a blast in the studio. It has a real positive vibe and good energy to it. It also has some of their funkiest stuff they’ve done in years! Josh’s guitar style is mostly very minimal, so it left a lot of room for Chad Smith and Flea to create a KILLER rhythm section. Flea’s playing is especially vicious! 

Favorite track: Its insanely hard to pick, there are SO many great songs on here! I’ll go with Factory of Faith. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6dkE3CbkdQ

 

Dream Theater “A Dramatic Turn of Events”- Yes, Dream Theater. A quick history: i was super ultra mega obsessed with DT back a few years ago. I loved the musicianship primarily, but i also dug the conceptual elements  they would pull into the songs. Yes, the vocals suck. Yes, the keyboard solos are super dated and cheesy. Yes, the songs are just vehicles for wank (mostly)…. but i can’t help but have a soft spot for them. I wouldn’t know half of the stuff i do about odd time signatures if not for that band. But i got out of listening to that band years ago and hadn’t even thought about them in a long time. But over the summer, i got sucked in to the drummer audition documentary they posted on Youtube, which concluded with them hiring the great Mike Mangini to fill Mike Portnoy’s shoes. I was excited to hear what Mangini would do with the band, and also to hear what the band would sound like without Portnoy overbearingly calling the shots and making a lot of “creative” decisions. I also started listening to DT again on my morning jogs. This was perfect because just 2 or 3 songs was the soundtrack to a 30 or 40 minute jog, and plus they drive Kate insane whenever i played them at home. But anyway, yeah, the new album is awesome. I would safely say its the best thing they’ve done since 6 Degrees. Mangini’s drumming is super solid and wonderfully devoid of all Portnoy-isms (i.e. the “two hands, two feet” fills that Portnoy slathered his parts with). Myung’s bass playing is always killer and precise, and this time around you can hear him a lot better… Petrucci does great throughout the album. Lots of memorable riffs and solos. And Labrie and Rudess are actually a lot less annoying than usual; Labrie has done a really great job of staying within his range and not trying to push himself into nasal, theatrical territory. I’m really looking forward to hearing what the band does next! It seems that without Portnoy, they are getting back to their proggy side rather than forcing themselves to be a metal band with progressive elements.

Favorite track: Lost Not Forgotten http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usPqh66pQaA

 

Last Chance to Reason “Level 2″- This album came as a nice surprise! Its kinda like Between the Buried and Me meets Devin Townsend meets Cynic meets Imogen Heap…. plus a little bit of the proggy keyboard joy of The Faceless’ debut album “Akeldama”. Plus, they released a freaking video game that you play along to the music. Now that is the damn coolest concept album of all time. I was also really impressed with the band live when i saw them last month, they pulled everything off perfectly! 

Favorite track: hard to choose since they all run together seamlessly. Portal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lKp8-zjaEQ

 

I feel like its worth mentioning a few albums that may have been omitted from this list simply because i haven’t listened to them yet; I have no clue why i don’t have the new Cynic EP, “Carbon-Based Anatomy”. I am a little put off by the super cheesy title, but i’m sure its awesome. I have also heard nothing but good things about the new Skeleton Witch CD, as well as Black Country Communion 2. Things to check out soon for sure!

Periphery in the studio using the Ibanez RG2228 i swirled for Misha Mansoor! Nifty!

Woke up this morning to see Periphery just posted a studio update which features the Optimus Prime swirled Ibanez RG2228 i painted for Misha 2 years ago! Pretty cool stuff, glad to see it being put to good use. Its still looking mighty fine. It appears he has replaced the pickups in it, with EMG808x’s if i were to guess. I know Tosin Abasi is partial to the set he has in his 2228, so i would guess Bulb wanted to give them a shot. They sound sick! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZJNLM7FmM