Review Summary: The peerless pinnacle of the Shrapnel Records shred craze, Firkins's debut stands as one of the most innovative, catchiest and best executed instrumental rock albums ever.
By the end of the 80s the shred rock craze brought about by the near-"hydrogen bomb"-level impact of Yngwie Malmsteen's neo-classical guitar playing had reached its logical conclusion. Hard as people had tried, nobody could really "out-Yngwie" Yngwie, and as a result the direction of most shred artists shifted to a jazz-fusion direction, spearheaded by the likes of Greg Howe, Tony Macalpine and so on. However, in depths of Nebraska, things were progressing a little differently.
Michael Lee Firkins hit the scene with his debut record in 1990, and by all accounts it was a major advancement on the shred sound both in style and technique. Firkins drew upon country music influences which grounded the previously heady shred sound in catchy hooks and organized musical structures. It also led to the re-popularisation of hybrid picking in the rock space, using it to incredible effect on tracks like Runaway Train which propelled along at speeds otherwise unachievable with the conventional techniques used by other axemen. Perhaps most impressive of all his technical tricks was his implementation of vibrato bar trills to imitate the effect of slide techniques on guitar, an extremely difficult and highly expressive musical adaptation.
This all pays off big time on the actual album, which captures a far wider range of emotions than a typical shred rock album due to the sheer versatility of Firkins. The album is also well paced, with a strong variance in tempos, from the speedy Laughing Stacks to the more stately 24 Grand Avenue to the lightning fast Runaway Train and back to slower country grooves on Cactus Cruz. Best of all is the 1-2 punch of Space Crickets and Rain in the Tunnel. The former is the catchiest track on the album, with Firkin’s signature vibrato bar faux-slide playing through the verse giving it a feeling of the open road, and its solo feeling both technically impeccable and wildly uncontrolled. Rain in the Tunnel is the album’s centrepiece, with the most epic tone and tonnes of dynamic shifts.
By pretty much all accounts one of the elite shred rock albums and one of the rare country dabbling in the peak of the shred era, it’s a wonder that Firkins shrunk out of the spotlight so quickly where many of the shred maestros went on to greater things. Regardless, this album is pretty much the gold standard for instrumental rock and one of the greatest accomplishments for the underdogs of rock.
