Review Summary: For fans of Progressive Metal, Metal core, Thrash, Djent, and electronica. Incredible to believe this was created by one person.
InstruMetal is an excellent collision between metal and progressive. although done many times before, the fact that Thelmo wrote and played all of the parts himself makes for a finely tuned experience. The surprise of this album is how well all the instruments play together, set up more as a trio then a guitarists solo album. The drums and bass also have many solos of there own giving this album the vibe of instrumental bands such as the Aristocrats or Liquid Tension Experiment and less of a Steve Vai or Joe Satchriani.
The albums opening track "Tapped" starts out with a very faint electronica beat giving the illusion of being outside of a club and walking through the door. The song then blasts you in the face with a tapped riff (no pun intended) and blazing drums playing in all kinds of odd time signatures. The song then turns gears and becomes a metal song filled with heavy guitar riffs and double bass drumming. Thelmo then throws in the chicken dance for a good laugh. the song is also filled with blistering lead work through out and some cool back and forth between instruments.
The second song "Four Days of Death" is the fastest song on the album. fast double bass drumming last practically the whole song. Guitar wise, the highlight of this song is the re-orchestration of the main theme, its played regular,palm muted, trill picked, finger tapped, and harmonized setting different moods with each passing.
Next up is the albums single "Burn in Front of Her", starting with a spanish classical guitar type of lead, the song quickly turns gears into a djent style riff. this song has some fun sweeping in the pre chorus and a cool melody played by octave chords in the chorus. the solo which ends the song is very fast.
"The Other Side" shows Thelmo's Michael Romeo influence. The main riff of the song resembles Symphony X's Revelations song but changes quickly through the use of odd time signatures. The break down of this song is the first glimpse of Thelmo's Metal core roots and the solo is very neoclassical sounding and has some cool whammy bar tricks through out.
"How I used to be" starts heavy with the drums playing the lead and then goes into a very quiet pretty part with the guitar playing arpeggios and the bass playing the lead over it. The song then gets heavy and stays heavy but has this fun chromatic section in the middle which is very progressive and complicated reminiscing sections of flight of the bumble bee. The solo uses wah and delay to give this old school slayer type of vibe to it. Song then ends mellow with the same arpeggios as the beginning.
The next song is "Die With Honor" which takes a break from the metal for a few minutes. Starting with piano, violin, and acoustic guitar. This song goes through many time signature changes including a few parts in 7/4. has a cool Santana type section where clean guitar and bass are both playing leads counterpoint from each other. The song then gets heavy with a riff similar to Dream Theaters War Inside my Head.
"Scars" is up next with its Thrash metal riffs, Iron Maiden style harmonies, and modern metal style drumming. This is one of the coolest songs on the album due to its fast feel keeping the listener interested all the way through. The highlight of the song is an electronica type beat with a cool 80s guitar solo over it.
The next song is the Apocalypse, which has a cool eight note riff that changes on the upbeat giving it a very unusual feel. The Chorus has a very fast thrash riff underneath a beautiful melodic line over it. The solo is also very different taking a more melodic blues approach as apposed to the shredding solos that the rest of the album features.
The next song "Unorganized religion" sounds like a slow grinding song for the first minute and then turns gears and becomes a very metal core type of song in the vain of As I Lay Dying. the lead in the chorus is also very cool because its all done by hammer ons and pull offs and has no picking what so ever.
The album ends with a bang from its final song "Salvation". Starting with an incredible harmonized lead guitar part and going into some slow sweep picking melodies. the songs chorus is also really neat with a lot of pull offs and its harmonized leads. The second chorus ends with some tremolo guitar effects and a great drum solo which leads into the greatest part of the song: The ending. One clean guitar playing an arpeggio re-orchestrated from the songs sweep picking section and another guitar playing a clean lead that comes in and out between the chords and is packed with emotion ending the album on a mellow note leaving the listener with a sense of melancholy.
This Album is a tremendous feat for a single person to have created and is definately worth a listen. Any fan of Instrumental or progressive music will definitely enjoy this.
