Marty Friedman
Dragon's Kiss

One of the most renowned guitar heroes rock has ever known. Mr. Friedman is among the few shredders who have been able to blend musicality with technique, aggression with melody. He never stopped at the 300 km/h solo and never fossilized on the genre that made him famous, heavy metal. Some do not appreciate his latest works, criticized for excessive sound experimentation, but I believe this change is part of his stylistic maturity and not for sales reasons given his genre, which is purely anti-commercial.

Marty is one of those musicians who revealed the true essence of music. It's enough to convey one's emotions even with two chords and a simple solo, something that cannot be said about many of his colleagues, who continue to produce albums that are as technical as they are boring. This is not to say that virtuosity is useless, absolutely not. It's nice to listen to a daredevil number with any instrument every once in a while, but it starts to become annoying when it becomes a routine.

Let's take a step back in time to the release of this "Dragon's Kiss" in 1988. The album, entirely instrumental, was produced by Friedman and Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records, a record label that has worked with several virtuosic musicians (Vinnie Moore, Joey Tafolla, Greg Howe, and Paul Gilbert, to name a few). The genre is a neoclassical metal with speed and thrash shades, where you can already sense a slight change in the guitarist's style compared to his previous band, Cacophony (fewer blistering solos and more space for melody). The album was composed by only two musicians: Friedman on guitar and bass along with the excellent drummer Deen Castronovo. Jason Becker (friend and colleague of Friedman in Cacophony) is featured as a guest on the tracks "Saturation Point" and "Jewel".

I won't conduct a pointless track-by-track analysis and will summarize its contents in a few concise words. It ranges from sturdy pieces like "Saturation Point", "Anvils" (both feature truly electrifying drum intros by Castronovo) and "Evil Thrill" to more calm and melodic tracks like "Namida (Tears)" and "Jewel", with a Friedman worthy of applause until your hands are raw. A special mention goes to the finale "Thunder March", a track with engaging melodies; I've lost count of how many times I've listened to it. With this masterpiece, Marty hit the target of true music, craftily merging virtuosity with sentiment.