Label: Palmetto Records
Release date: 07.09.2018
Album length: 54.40 min
Production: Alex Skolnick Trio
Genre: Jazz Rock Fusion
Attention, metal brothers and sisters! The new Alex Skolnick Trio is here. Okay, it’s been out for a while. And as always, the valiant and esteemed guitar hero and razor-sharp virtuoso of Testament and Metal Alligance delivers another superb jazz record. »Conundrum« is the trio’s fifth jazz album overall and once again serves up everything Skolnick spoiled us with on its predecessors, and then some, because his bible of mastering six-string theory (guitar playing) in any genre’s waters is breathtaking and, well, just plain thrilling.
The gap between the new »Conundrum« and the previous »Veritas« is, in fact, seven years once again. As you know, the legendary Bay Area thrash metallers Testament have been fully active in recent years, both live and in the studio, so time for other “extra-metal adventures” is naturally a bit squeezed.
»Conundrum« is a thrill once again. A thrill in its crafty concision, its many layers and the carefree expanse of jazz-rock fusion that never strays from blending other genres with jazz’s solid modal structures. That means Skolnick and the crew have once more come up with an exceptionally bold synthesis that’s highly accessible even for less demanding listeners, and that they’ve refined with what the music gourmets come for: a top-notch performance of sheer brilliance, once again bursting with rich ideas and with the witty tricks and big virtuoso flexibility of the trio. Right from the start Alex Skolnic Trio hit you with the catchy Ubound, which opens with funky slapping under a seductive Skolnick phrase, and Skolnick immediately shows once more how the use of flageolets he slips into the lead phrase can, lift the dynamics and swing the moods. Such a simple trick, yet such a huge effect. On »Conundrum« Alex Skolnick once again offers “a bit of everything”. He moves between many genre spheres and, with crafty splendor and filigree sensuality, bridges the seemingly irreconcilable in a way that you can barely notice the transitions in the character of the arrangements. Django Tango hints at a love of tango rhythms right in the title, while the title track stands alongside Key Of Sea as a highlight of the album, where the band even manages to conjure up moments of mysticism, with Key Of Sea absolutely leading the way, its special atmosphere built by bowed bass guitar. The superb Dodge The Bambula joins this dreamy, yearning mystery, unfolding completely unpretentiously, with Alex Skolnick Trio approaching it with exceptionally refined softness. Once again, in the middle, Skolnick surprises by working in a fusion of swing that borrows some “gypsy” flavor in the melody, which gratefully steers the music away from the potential over-predictability of using classic jazz structures. The title track is really everything you want from Skolnick, gathered in one single place. With several changes of time signature, on top of the jazz-rock premise, the trio also eyes some easygoing Latin melody. The transitions between the building blocks of the sound are superb. The contrasts are perfectly judged, and the bass and drums constantly get plenty of room to stretch out flexibly, so that Skolnick’s guitar genius doesn’t accidentally push them into an inferior position. The arpeggios are downright masterful! This time, of course, purely acoustic, warm and live, measured out with hair-splitting precision and played with fury, which only confirms what a masterful, distinctive and unique musician this outstanding guitarist is, Alex Skolnick, especially when you add up everything else that marks him out as a notorious shredder on electric guitar.
The album delivers a cover of the original Gymnopedie No 1. by Erik Satie, where the band, after Django Tango, once again leans heavily into cabaret figures and vividly shows what performing brilliance and softness it can muster when it approaches a fragile composition with incredible sensuality. This leaves room for playful double bass solo structures. Fuel is then poured on the fire by the swing story in Culture Shock, which is dosed on one side with jazz-country mischief and on the other surprises with an exceptionally successful middle section, where Skolnick, through jazz meandering, tackles the solo lines with a hefty helping of arabesques too. A cheeky highlight of the album, bursting with an immensely successful stylistic collision. As always, it’s noticeable on this album too that Skolnick loves to push flageolets into his phrases, which adds further variety to the sound itself and lifts the dynamics of how things unfold. George Gerschwin or Henry Mancini could easily have joined in on A Question Of Moral Ambyguilty, another old-school jazz cabaret classic with playful, boyish passages that keep vividly bringing the track back to the same lead motif. Protect The Dream, which closes the album, has the most experimentalism on the record within its jazz-rock fusion premise, with a dramatic yet solemn opening motif that’s remarkably distinctive in melody, even mildly mystical and dark, and one that someone like Jeff Kollman would gladly borrow for his Cosmosquad. An outstanding detour and a superb closing moment!
»Conundrum« is everything we want from Alex Skolnick and his trio. This seven-year cycle between the trio’s album releases works out great. These are the moments when Skolnick’s “electric” genius, known to most, discharges for a moment, resets, steps into an entirely different dimension of playing, writing and composing, and starts absorbing musical dimensions dominated by an absolutely free-spirited creative attitude that can’t stand too much boxing in, even though Skolnick, as a jazzman, is first and foremost always faithfully devoted to solid modal forms of composing. »Conundrum« is yet another brilliant Skolnick “spell” that, with the incredible layering of virtuoso playing, delivers a work that speaks to the listener throughout with incredible appeal and musical accessibility.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.5 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Unbound
2. Django Tango
3. Conundrum
4. Gymnopédie, No. 1
5. Culture Shock
6. Dodge The Bambula
7. Key Of Sea
8. A Question Of Moral Ambiguity
9. Protect The Dream
Lineup:
Alex Skolnick – guitar
Nathan Peck – bass
Matt Zebroski – drums
