Customer Reviews

Animal Instinct

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The naysayers here have got it all wrong. Hoey can play all genres of music. He's not a pyrotechnics guy like Vai who can't produce a consistent body of meaningful work like his teacher Joe Satriani. I wouldn't dare compare Hoey to Satch (because Satch is god). I had the pleasure of meeting Hoey at a Fender demonstration he gave at Vincent's Music in Paramus, NJ. Not only did he play... for a room of 15 people, he was very cool and informative during the Q&A session. Don't lump him in the same fold as Satch and Vai, he's not all about hi-tech flashy fret runs. He's much more accessible than the "guitar gods" who appeal mostly to guitar snobs, that's what makes him different. I have all his CDs and can recommend them all.

After checking out the Hocus Pocus video on MTV, a pumped-up version of the '70s classic, I was hooked on this guy. This album covers the spectrum of rock, from the hard-driving opening "Mass Hysteria" to the subtle groove of "Bert's Lounge" to the soaring blues of "Texas Son" to the the mellow tones of "Motown Fever" to the blissfully sad "Fade to Blue" to the Satriani-like cruising tune, "Drive" and a few others. I've had this album for over five years and it hasn't lost its luster a bit. It's all instrumental, so if you love guitar music, there's another hero on the scene. Scoop this one up, you hear?

I first saw Gary play on the headbangers ball-b-q in 93. He was in the background jammin out.My only focus was on his music. Not the goings on around him. I bought the CD shortly after that appearance. I own everyone of Gary's disc and they all have their own endearing quality to them. I do not play any guitar on any other musical instruments for that matter. I just a guy who likes good rock n roll and quite a few other genres. So even though I'm not a guitar snob I am a music snob. I can tell you that this CD was amazing to hear in 93 and is still a total joy to listen to again and again. I had to repurchase this CD recentley because I wore out my original copy. Satch, Vai, and Johnson are really good. But my favorite is Gary.

I like how this guy blends the Satch tone with edgey blues-rock and 70's metal. I think this blend makes him pretty unique, rather than "not bringing anything new to the table". After the first few seconds of listening, it sounded new to me, and I've listened to just about every artist and style of music you can imagine. The X Factor is that part of the music that makes you want to get up and rock the hell out. This album has it.

Ahhh, the mid-to-late 80's. Lame bands (mostly) and great musicianship (mostly). Thankfully, Gary followed in Satriani's footsteps and flew solo. This guy is great, and so are all of his albums. If you get a chance to see him live, GO!

HOEY should never be compared to other guitar hero's. Like action movies that work only on the special effects level and pay no attention to tention or plot, most metal guitarists have got all the effects but almost no plot. HOEY has all the chops, but besides the daunting technical skills that he brings to his musik, he also has the musikal brain of a modern day BEETHOVEN. His compositions are timeless and will please even people who would not listen to an instrumental metal CD. Only a couple of metal guitarists / composers can reach such high levels on occasion, HOEY reaches them consistently. I saw SATRIANI live and had goose bumps for the first 40 minutes and was totaly bored by the second 40 minutes as he repeated the same ( very fast ) scales with minute changes. HOEY is not about scales and his live CD shows you how skillfull and inventive this master is.
Yes he overdoes the wah wah at times, but if that is his only weakness, than what he has to offer is more than enough to compensate. If you like the guitar than anything by HOEY will make you happy.

I just need to say this: If you like guitar, wether it is classical or heavy metal, you have to have this and all of Gary Hoey's CDs. He is absolutely amazing. I saw him play in concert once, and this guy will play for two hours straight, and will not make a single mistake. He sometimes does cover songs (instrumental), and more often than not his version is much better than the original (see Hocus Pocus). He ranks in my book as one of the best guitar players of our time.

I'll be serious and say that the reason I purchased this album was for the cover of Focus' "Hocus Pocus". It did introduce me to Gary Hoey, albeit at a younger age when I thought great guitar was playing as loud and fast as possible. As time has moved on, I continue to listen to Hoey through works like "Endless Summer II", and I listen to this album less and less. I still believe that the cut of "Hocus Pocus" is the highlight of this album, the rest of it is a young musician trying to find his groove. I feel that he tried to fill every available space with notes.

There are several other tracks that make this album worthwhile. "Bert's Lounge" starts off with a funky rhythm. The melody is appropriate and well done for this song. Again, he overplays the solo by trying to be too flashy, but then he makes room for a cool bass solo from Tony Franklin before turning up the heat again. "Deep South Café" is one of those monster slide blues tunes. It is one of the better albums on the track because he takes his time and phrases well with his bottleneck. When he drops the slide to take his solo, he just speeds up again. My favorite track of the album is "Motown Fever". Another blues song with a funky rhythm, but instead of trying to show us how limber his fingers are, he takes his time and plays it sweet. No soulless dribble here.

For the most part, the album is a bust. If you're into flashy guitar work full of speed but short of someone like Satriani or Vai, then this is worth checking out because he does fly. Also if you're a big fan of Hoey, and would like to see where he came from, this is kind of cool to hear because there are some really cool parts.

I bought this CD because I was so impressed with Hoey's version of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch". One of my favorite tunes of the year. However, "Animal Instinct" was a major dissapointment. Assumption: If you're considering buying this album, you're probably a guitar player. Well, Gary Hoey plays better than you (and me). But then, there are a lot of people who play better than you, and you probably don't want to buy their CDs. Hoey plays well, but he's not virtuosic enough to sustain interest in his pitifully boring chord progressions. Back in the 80's, when boring chord progressions were okay if they came with good enough shredding, this album *might* have cut it, but we've heard this a million times already. If you want to hear really good guitar playing, move up a notch and buy some Steve Vai CDs. At least with Vai, you can be so impressed with his shredding that the boring chord progressions are okay. If you want to move up a notch and also have some interesting chordal work, buy some Allan Holdsworth.

some of the songs are a little too loud, but overall the cd is good (just skip like 3 of the songs)