FREDRIK PIHL – Silhouettes (CD)

Swedish guitarist Fredrik Pihl now releases his first solo effort. The six track CD starts off with the track Above The Surface. It immediately strikes me that the main riff used is an Indian scale often played by Freak Kitchen’s Mattias Ia Eklundh as an exercise. The aforementioned guitar hero is making a guest appearance on the track so I presume it’s fully legit. Fredrik has a good tone and his playing is fine, but the production is actually quite poor. Quite bad sounding programmed drums, at times overplaying quite a bit, and a mix that sounds like it was done in a laptop with no monitors. I’m sorry, but in this day and age when the possibilities are endless and you can find someone to mix your recording at a fair price. A bad production is not a good excuse. The Demonic Masquerade has a nice melodic verse. I’m a bit surprised the keyboards are so dominant for a guitar album. The track features nice soloing from Fredrik, showing a melodic side as well as a more technical flare. Most of the songs have a fusion-oriented touch with odd rhythms which is nice. The title track, which at times has an almost folky feel, features a guest solo from Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (now in guns ‘N Roses). It’s however a bit too long to keep the interest intact without having any major changes. By The Blue Horizon is a nice melodic keyboard based piece with a guest appearance by keyboardist Lalle Larsson. Unfortunately the programmed drums are again overplaying quite a bit. Nice acoustic guitar melodies, though, while the electric guitar solo feels a bit too jazzy and scale-based to really fit the song. All in all, some nice guitar playing going on, but the songs are in my opinion a bit too dissonant to really catch my attention. I do like fusion, but I still want some nice hooks and melodies, and sure there are, but they come and go quite quickly. Also the production is an issue that really should be put in focus next time around.
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Link: www.fredrikpihl.com <http://www.fredrikpihl.com/>