Jason Becker
Perpetual Burn

This album represents for many one of the main chapters of the Bible of shred guitar, that particular way of approaching the six strings, which spread around the early ’80s, and literally "tore apart" the technical/stylistic references of guitarists from previous years (see Blackmore, Page, etc.). This album is a kind of manifesto exemplifying the principles, already introduced previously by famous guitarists like Malmsteen, Satriani, or Steve Vai, that energized the shredding guitarists of the time: pushing the man-electric guitar dualism in heavy rock beyond the unbelievable, yet maintaining an intact love for the instrument and creativity.

Any guitarist who makes an album purely based on technical acrobatics would lead listeners to turn off the player after two minutes due to the unlistenability of the track. Fortunately, there are guitarists who manage to add a good dose of imagination, personal taste, and melody to their incredible technical skills. Among these is certainly Jason Becker in this splendid jewel of an album: his touch, bending, trills, slides, vibratos, and all effects in every track serve as expressions of sublime music that, generated from his heart, flows directly to the instrument through his fingers. There is not a single piece where the self-satisfaction of the author in hyper-technical exercise and the emotion he wants to give us cannot be perceived. All progressions, execution speed, and incredible techniques used on the guitar have their reason for being, they are an integral part of the overall harmony of the piece. Just listen to tracks like "Altitudes" or "Opus Pocus", where the author's love for the melodic structures typical of oriental music is perceived, to understand what I mean; up until reaching the incredible six semi-acoustic minutes of the melancholic and reflective, yet at the same time heartrending, "Air". There is no shortage of more aggressive moments such as in the title track, in "Dweller In The Cellar", in "Temple Of The Absurd" where between sweep-picking, harmonized solos, and bursts of pentatonic scales, Becker's guitar seems almost to scream all its anger. Especially in these last two tracks and "Eleven Blue Egyptians", a track that features inspired blues intrusions, there is a guest and co-author of the songs, the faithful friend Marty Friedman; he and Jason (when he was only 17!), under the bright name of Cacophony, had the previous year released a work titled “Speed Metal Symphony” which had already shaken the community of guitar technique virtuosos.

The story of Jason Becker, as many know, was not fortunate afterward. He seemed to have, so young, the world of guitar already at his feet. He had just replaced Steve Vai in the David Lee Roth band and was about to finish the recording sessions of the album “A Little Ain’t Enough," when suddenly his left hand began to slip from the guitar neck and he was given the terrible diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease known to the general public simply as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given a couple of years to live at most. He, after almost fifteen years, is still there writing music for guitar with his immense and boundless creativity, even though he can obviously no longer play it. "Perpetual Burn" thus represents a kind of guitaristic testament for the world, in which Jason leaves his will about how an electric guitar should still be played today, that is, with heart and mind, meaning with feeling and technique. Absolutely the best guitar album of recent times, what distinguishes it from other albums of the genre is the ability to evoke emotions and not just limit itself to technique that says nothing to you.
In my humble opinion, I think that Jason Becker would have been the best guitarist of the recent decades, I invite you to watch a lot of videos made by himself when he was no more than 17 years old, where he performs pieces of incredible technique and audacity, pieces by authors who were already then considered the best in the world. I think there is nothing more to say to express my great regret for having lost one of the greatest young guitarists of all time. THANK YOU JASON!