Review Summary: Stump thinks his name is Malmsteen.
Joe Stump is playing a joke on us all. Basically what this guy is doing is he's trying his very hardest to be Yngwie Malmsteen, at the expense of anyone who bravely picks up one of his albums. Malmsteen plays a cream-colored Strat, so does Stump. Malmsteen is famous for his relentless wanking, so Stump wanks in similar fashion, while perfectly mimicking Malmsteen's sound & style. Malmsteen adores Ferrari's, so as you could've guessed, Stump has a thing for exotic cars too [although he can't get his hands on a Ferrari, so he is forced to work with lesser means of luxury (pic under comments)]. In fact, this man is so proficient in stealing identities, that while writing this review, I nearly forgot I was listening to an imposter, and not the real Malmsteen altogether.
For 1 hour, 9 minutes, and 1 second, Joe plays the same thing over and over and over again; if one can even sense the subtle variations between songs, they are barely noticeable. Everything from the guitar tone all the way down to the backing drums are identical to a vintage Malmsteen record. If it wasn't bad enough, Stump can't even match the "feel" of Malmsteen, who in the minds of many guitarists, is classified as being deficient in the "feel" department himself. The only other significant difference I can come up with for separating the virtuosos is that Malmsteen was doing this back in the 80's, while Joe Stump is redoing it in 2004.
If you've ever heard Yngwie Malmsteen shred, consider yourself having heard
Speed Metal Messiah in it's entirety. The album is so painstakingly monotonous and uninspired that I began loathing it 2-3 songs in. So, if you fancy bland shredding, you may enjoy this album; but more likely than not, you still won't like it. It's a shame because Joe Stump is without question very proficient technically, and would likely be more than capable of creating decent records if he took Yngwie's balls out of his mouth and at least tried to develop his own personality and playing style. Oh yeah, Malmsteen is still much better, too.
