Allan Holdsworth
Metal Fatigue

Sometimes being too ahead of your time means remaining misunderstood.
This is why the brilliant guitarist from Yorkshire, a recognized master of legions of guitarists, has remained trapped in his identification with “difficult music” and, as such, an alien object in the increasingly decaying world of show biz.

A fascinating character: a two-meter-tall man, not exactly handsome, sometimes forced to sell off his instruments due to financial difficulties, but... But someone to whom many of the greatest guitarists acknowledge the ability to do with one hand what they do with two... .!

Allan Holdsworth is certainly one of the most evolved living guitar minds, a true UFO, which has sometimes earned him the unjust accusation of excessive musical “coldness,” misunderstanding the distance that his daring harmonic concepts create with the average listener's ear.
Leaving aside the technical details, which can bore most readers, i.e., non-guitarists, a fundamental fact remains: Allan Holdsworth is among the few capable of technical phrasing.
By that, I mean that the majority of musicians, even renowned and well-known, whenever they want to astonish listeners with complicated passages, lose control of the phrasing, that is, the sense of the played phrases, in other words, “they don't play.”

It's as if a skilled speaker could only quickly repeat nonsensical words. Allan Holdsworth, on the other hand, “technically phrases,” meaning he presents meaningful phrases at astronomical speeds and is among the very few to play “logically and technically” at the same time, with the feeling suitable for the context in which his phrasing is inserted; this makes him a cult object even among his more famous colleagues like Vai, Van Halen, etc...

Many years later, this “Metal Fatigue” is still able to astonish, especially with the relevance of its musical ideas, which, in my opinion, are even more innovative in the “song” form found on this album. We press the play button and listen to the first track, “Metal Fatigue”: the initial riff is made original by the vaguely raucous tone of the six-string, on the verge of dissonance, but “musical,” structured like a rock song with a unique language, complicated yet fascinating, intricate yet fluid, leaving one in awe.

“Home” ... ambient noises introduce us to the warmth of a typical English pub, then sweet but spacey sounds, electric guitar with a very full and clean sound (it could easily be mistaken for a keyboard) that repeats the theme while an acoustic outlines an unusual phrasing, a counter-melody... gentle melancholy. Allan offers us a suggestive instrumental snapshot. It's “Devil Take the Hindmost.”
Without simply indulging in solo onanism, which his unparalleled technique would certainly allow, he offers articulated melodies by intertwining the myriad tonal expressions of his hyper-technological guitar. A clear electric arpeggio emerges out of nowhere, and here we are in “Panic Station,” certainly the most generous concession to pop, but full of ideas and with a solo where brevity meets delightful completeness, then doubled by the bass solo of the trusty Gary Willis. The voice of the talented Paul Williams is entirely at ease in such a virtuosic context. But Holdsworth promptly retaliates, dragging the listener into the dramatic dimension of “The Un-merry Go-round,” a thousand atmospheres between experimental and jazz, interspersed with a flash solo by Chad Wakerman, ex-Zappa, a true drum virtuoso.
“In the Mystery,” finally, closes the record with another pop performance, always seasoned with absolutely unusual harmonizations for the genre and another splendid solo.

The record flows smoothly without any strain, very pleasant and of consistent quality, with constant references to a type of music perfectly midway between jazz and rock: from jazz, it borrows an educated language and complex harmonies, while from rock it takes the accents and the seductive rhythm.

A note to the band, as amazing as the leader: speaking of Wakerman, Willis, and Williams, a nod to the famous Alan Pasqua on synths and to Gary Husband, future Chick Corea Band, who plays drums on “The Un-Merry Go-Round.” A brave artist, a quality CD, an advanced level, therefore, for those who are now tired of stereotypical harmonic structures, repetitive timbres and need new and fascinating sound stimuli, but also for those who seek a more educated and sophisticated dimension of rock language, now increasingly gasping despite the ever more numerous restylings and coverings.