Mathias Holm Klarin – Dream Catch (digital)

To find any traces of Swedish shredder Mathias Holm’s solo material we have to go way back to 1996. That’s when he released his first album “Pictures Of A Dream”. In 2010 he also released an album with Swedish prog metal band Mindsplit (also featuring members from Madison, Jade, Scudiero/Fatal Smile), but since then little has been heard. Until now. "Dream Catch" starts where “Pictures of a Dream” left off, with a collection of melodic, instrumental guitar music. Mathias has matured a bit in his style and playing, and just like guitarists like Joe Satriani, he aims for the song rather than the shred thrill. Way better in my book! Mathias has a great tone and his sound is clear and powerful. The title track is one of my favorites with it’s nice variations and cool tempo. There are of course some Yngwie:esque twiddling here as well, such as in “Green Water” and “Past Reflecion” with their neo-classical orientation. Killer technique, great tone, impeccable playing, but not as interesting to me as something like “Divine Journey”, where Mathias takes us through a lot of different musical landscapes, from fast shredding, to fusionesque parts to oriental influences. All in all a really nice album from an outstanding guitar player!

Janne Stark

Label: Lion Music

Year: 2017

Country: Sweden