Artist: GHB (Grega Habič Band)
Label: Self-released
Release: 2011
Runtime: 44:16
Rating: 4.5/5
Two years after the release of “Self Destruct Sequence”, Slovenian guitar wizard and mastermind Grega Habič is back on the music scene with a fresh studio record. Anyone who moves in Slovenia’s musically “uncontaminated” circles knows this name all too well. Grega is one of that handful of creative geniuses sworn to preserving and constantly pushing forward their own artistic freedom. Given the curse of being “just any genius” in Slovenia, you’re doomed to make a living from anything but peddling your genius. Unless you’re hiding some scoundrel talents, that is, because those have been encouraged for years, from the political elite on down the state pyramid. Grega is a man who could be raking in bales of rustling greenbacks in the backing bands of Slovenian pop entertainers, but he’d rather take the thorny path of defiance. Don’t get me wrong. Abroad, musicians and live gladiators like Grega Habič are welcomed with open arms, so let’s hope Grega breaks through and makes a successful leap abroad as soon as possible.
A musician we Slovenes should be truly proud of! “Open Heart Surgery” deepens and widens the expressive horizons Grega has revealed up to now, including the album “Self Destruct Sequence”, and presents him in a new guise, one in which he has sharpened his profile further and distilled the clarity of his musical vistas, focusing on putting the musical substance front and center. To date, this is the most mature, most focused and, above all, sonically polished record of Grega Habič’s career. The maturity shows especially in a few particularly sophisticated passages where Grega leans on the legacy of jazz more than ever before, which undoubtedly deepens his explorer’s streak and his insatiable appetite for musical experimentation.
The production is livelier than ever, even the programming is mostly superbly camouflaged, and maestro Mika Jusilla, in the final mastering, got the most out of the contrasts between the individual sonic collages, so brilliantly weaving together the final (three-dimensional) picture of the sound spectrum.
Grega, who once again, besides playing all the guitars, programmed the drums, added some keyboards and played the bulk of the bass guitars (except on the track 2 L8 4 Tears, where Matej Sušnik guests), has stuck with the excellent American multidimensional musician Jesse Adams for the new album. The special quality of the Habič / Adams pairing is best summed up by the track Fighting The Undertow. A dark number where, in this experimental union, a sense of doomy theater, the psycho-frenzy of Adams’ rhythmic poetry of delivering verses, and the laid-bare, restless figuration of Grega Habič’s trademark guitar hairdos shake hands beautifully. The album opens with the ominous, furious riff of the track Pig. It sounds alive, “American” in its thrash riff, fashionably smeared and roaring, and it keeps Habič’s recognizable signature, which the previous album embodied in its own way. Pig reminds you what it looks like when a pig finds itself at the trough, and at the same time it can be misleading, because with its direct riff-driven provocation and “squealing” noise it raises the suspicion that this is an album built on riff-mashing. It’s an early, direct revelation of six-string theory on the record, one that sums up in a concise four minutes what kind of dough Grega Habič is made of. An excellent choice of opener, one that automatically makes you prick up your ear stumps and happily surrender to the further processing of this excellent record
Alyx is the moment where the album flirts heavily with jazz elements for the first time, woven into a coquettish funk rhythm, anchored by a wah-wah riff in the background, once again showered in Grega Habič’s typical guitar language, and it loosens up the tense opening a bit, while Mirror completely calms the album’s initial opening fury. In Mirror, the guitarist’s refined expressiveness first sparks, delivering his guitar language, and that language finds safe shelter in the keyboard structures of his colleague Robert Humar, who masterfully hold up the backdrop. The especially mellifluous 2 L8 4 Tears deepens the jazz fusion, with a lucid spice of Adams’ vocals.
The tracks Alchemist and, right after it, Devil’s Whisper expand the power of fusing metal with jazz techniques, the way only Grega Habič’s experimental inner self understands it. If the description in the previous sentence applies especially to Alchemist, Devil’s Whisper is more direct, keeping a strong bond with melody and, along with it, straight-up riff integrity. That’s why it will be all the more tailor-made for lovers of hard (metal) erotica.
Tunel Lights and Marionette are new leaps into an abundance of flowing organic structures. These moments of the album, much like the first part of Mirror and the 2 L8 F4 Tears after it, feel much closer to the ear, and it seems like a whole band is breathing along with the listener. And if we’re looking for moments where the new album’s music really touches the hidden corners of the heart, the penultimate track, Irreversable Damage, offers something like that. The track doesn’t lack a superb contrast in the guitar playing, which, after a proper “mini flamenco acoustic solo attack”, turns through guitar tricks of boundless wit and inspiration, with no end in sight. The track strikingly smashes all the familiar templates and erases the borders between genre focal points, melting them in a crucible into a unique expressive stew, the personification of many atmospheric twists across its leading motifs. Here the moment of unpredictability stands out in particular, while the track’s outstanding flow and listenability are fully preserved. Many of the special feelings in this track are also co-created by the acoustic guitar of Glenn Snelwar.
The album closes with yet another wound-up-to-the-max track that actually closes the circle of the album’s story. It’s the title track, which in atmosphere could easily swap places with Pig as the opener. A breakneck guitar rally, with a motif impression that, in the soloing, jumps into a soothing (few-seconds-long) extravaganza of oriental melos. A great closing hook on the album, where the predatory, metalized punch and the dark atmosphere of a created drama theater return.
“Open Heart Surgery” is an album worth following this piece of advice before you put it in the CD player: “Relax your mind, switch off your reason, empty your head!” Only then will you be fully receptive to its message. It demands more attention, but in return for that attention it rewards you handsomely. A new peak for Slovenian rock and fresh proof that we Slovenes have outstanding musicians who also have enough courage not to deny or hold back their genius. In its unshakable, unique message, “Open Heart Surgery” places Grega Habič in the world’s top tier of Earthlings, and it’s an album that can make even the greatest masterminds of this craft prick up their ears irreversibly at any moment. From Steve Vai to Jason Becker. Grega Habič will have to seek confirmation of the musical charisma of his unique sermon and vision abroad. He isn’t the only genius cast into disfavor by his homeland’s historical attitude and the sado-masochistic, tight-fisted envy of the Slovenian nation’s small-mindedness toward geniuses of his caliber. So “Open Heart Surgery” throws the doors wide open for Grega Habič to break through abroad!
Here’s what this musician needs now. A proper backing band, with which, besides playing live shows, he could optionally record future studio albums too. At moments it’s impossible to miss the synthetic cosmetics of the drum programming even on the new album, which modern software otherwise camouflages superbly, but take, for example, the “robotically precise responsiveness” of the hi-hat cymbal in the mix of the overall sound structure, and you just can’t overlook it. All of that will happen in the future. But nice and slow. Step by step!
You can buy this CD by ordering through Grega Habič’s official management contact: [email protected]
Lineup
Grega Habič – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, programming
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jesse Adams – vocals (tracks 3 and 8), keyboards (tracks 1, 6 and 8), rhythm guitar (track 1)
Glenn Snelwar – acoustic guitar (track 10)
Manfred Dikkers – percussion (tracks 7 and 9)
Robert Humar – keyboards (tracks 3, 4 and 9)
Matej Sušnik – bass guitar (track 4)
Production
Grega Habič
Tracklist
1. Pig
2. Alyx
3. Mirror
4. 2 L8 4 Tears
5. Alchemist
6. Devil’s Whisper
7. Tunnel Lights
8. Fighting The Undertow
9. Marionette
10. Irreversable Damage
11. Open Heart Surgery
