Customer Reviews

Scenes

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Throughout the 80s I was always buying guitar albums from the latest "shredder". While these guys had chops most of their albums only contained a couple decent songs with good melodies or catchy riffs. The rest of the album was just pointless wanking. Why? Because they spent too much time practicing technique and not enough time on composition. This album contains great playing and great melodies! Some of the solos bring tears to my eyes. It is a very solid album. Much of it has an oriental flavor due to Japanese composer Kitaro's influence and Marty's "koto" technique. Other great guitar albums are High Tension Wires (Steve Morse), and Son Of Man (James Byrd).

Musically this album has virtually nothing to do with Megadeth. There's no heavy riffing, double bass drumming or angry choruses that make speed/thrash metal what it is. Rather "Scenes" is an instrumental album that is very different for Marty Friedman. It has an almost ambient/new age type of vibe, although many of these compositions could easily be featured on a soundtrack. There is also a distinct eastern/oriental feel in most of these songs. There are almost no distorted guitar riffs, but rather many beautifully structured solos, ambient keyboard textures and clean tone guitar playing. "Scenes" showcases Friedman @ his best. Not only would I consider this the best piece of work Friedman has done, but also one of the best albums ever done! It is magical and is almost like a journey through a fantastical, exotic land where there is no evil, no ugliness, no malice, just beauty, innocence and purity. In other words: these are the sounds of Heaven.

I had never heard of Marty Friedman until last month when I bought Dragon's Kiss. I liked it.
I bought "Scenes" expecting more of the same.
What a wonderful surprise! Scenes is captivating. From beginning to end, Scenes creates a mood and transports you to a place where all music is beautiful.Clean, clear, and every note is carefully crafted. Not what you'd expect from a "shredder". Of all my CDs by Satriani, Vai, Petrucci, and Malmsteen, this is now my favorite! As a guitarist, Friedman is excellent. As a composer, he is supreme.

first time i bought this album i was expecting a heavy guitar riff & solo just like his stuff on megadeth. but it's totally different, it's an awesome new age album which contain a beautiful melody in every songs.my fav songs on this album is "west" .if you like a a melodic guitar solo you wont be dissapointed by this one. all track on this album is GOOD!

This recording is a masterpiece. Marty's compositions are sweepingly powerful. His guitar sound is rich and eloquent. It stirs, it moves, it haunts. The music starts with a quiet intensity, and slowly escalates into dramatic, lilting crescendos. His intense melody-driven guitar splashes all over the muted synthetic backdrop, painting the sweetest of sounds to be coaxed from the instrument. This recording is heavy on melody, and so satisfying in the depths it reaches within it. Listening to this album hearkens me back to a favorite meal or beverage. It has all of the most pleasurable qualities I enjoy, struck at the perfect balance and I never tire of it.

Of all Marty's solo albums, this is my favorite. It's also the one most different from Marty's head-ripping image from Megadeth. Although there are some overdrive solos here that can decapitate as well.

A lot of the ideas in 'Scenes,' Marty has said, were written when he was a teenager, and the album served as a 'cleaning out' of his old ideas. They were however arranged and played by a musically mature Friedman, so the old ideas could hold up to anything else in his other CDs.

The synth simulations in this album are more 'fake' here than in Marty's follow-up 'Introduction,' but I like this fakeness. And if they passed co-producer Kitaro's standards, then there couldn't really be a problem with them.

That's another thing. I was introduced to Kitaro through this album. I heard a lot more of Kitaro afterwards, and he's a cool musician himself.

Anyway, 'Tibet' and 'Angel' are basically one piece, and a great opener to this heavily Oriental album. 'Valley of Eternity' is my favorite piece of Marty in any album. It's epic, and has such beautiful, perfect melodies. 'Night' is a cool track, and has great passionate solos towards the end. I'm so proud to be a Marty fan.

'Realm of the Senses' is my second favorite track. I love the exotic vibrato here. His style of shredding on a clean tone is so powerful. This is just a wonderful track.

'West,' influenced by the 'Marlboro' commercials I'm guessing, has some really awesome background guitar arpeggios. Another perfect moment in the album.

'Trance' is basically a jam tune, I never cared for it actually. It's a good contrast though, I guess, to 'Triumph,' which is a 'peaceful thunder march.' A good serene ending for this album.

Marty Friedman, in this and all of his albums, shows that being a good guitarist and musician has nothing to do with genre.

A truly unique phenomenon in guitar-oriented music.

Let me start off by saying that I am definitely a metalhead. I love Megadeth's early stuff and Friedman's album Dragon's Kiss.
This is something completely different.

Instead of aggresive and abrasive, this music is docile and smooth. Nearly every song has melodies that can touch your soul. This is very emotional music no doubt. A lot of it is Japanese influenced.

Marty's structure on this album is that nearly each song slowly builds to a climax of soft power. For example, on "West" (one of my fav songs on the album), he starts on a very melodic melody riff thing, and eventually breaks into a very cool middle section. After a repeat of the middle section, Marty then does a beautiful falling arpeggio over the melody, and it comes out perfectly. Each time repeating this phase, he adds another instrument or touch to the mix.

You will shed a few tears listening to the peaceful sounds of this album. Highly recommended. Its not shreddy, but creative enough to entertain. Just sit back, relax, and listen to Friedman's magic. A couple o' highlights are West, Night, Triumph, and Valley of eternity. Also Angel is quite good.

Let me start off by saying that I am definitely a metalhead. I love Megadeth's early stuff and Friedman's album Dragon's Kiss.
This is something completely different.

Instead of aggresive and abrasive, this music is docile and smooth. Nearly every song has melodies that can touch your soul. This is very emotional music no doubt. A lot of it is Japanese influenced.

Marty's structure on this album is that nearly each song slowly builds to a climax of soft power. For example, on "West" (one of my fav songs on the album), he starts on a very melodic melody riff thing, and eventually breaks into a very cool middle section. After a repeat of the middle section, Marty then does a beautiful falling arpeggio over the melody, and it comes out perfectly. Each time repeating this phase, he adds another instrument or touch to the mix.

You will shed a few tears listening to the peaceful sounds of this album. Highly recommended. Its not shreddy, but creative enough to entertain. Just sit back, relax, and listen to Friedman's magic.

Yes this is quite an unexpected move from Megadeth, but you can actually hear some of the Asian influence in the Megadeth solos. It is a great album, very experimental and melodic. If you are looking for straight up shred, this album isn't for you. Its a mix of beautiful songs that are executed with perfection and virtuosity. I had the privilege of seeing him play a concert a short time before he Megadeth, it was amazing. Its kind of funny that he is trying techno now. But as we can see with this album, he is full of surprises.

Most of rock fans know Marty Friedman, the lead guitarist of Megadeth, but prior to Megadeth he was already a respected figure in the guitar world for his remarkable work with Jason Becker in Cacophony and his solo album Dragon's Kiss, where he stood as a melodic player. He takes his melodic playing a step further, releasing a japanese-new age influenced guitar album. There's still some rock music here, but most of the album is very mellow, which is a strange thing for a guitar shredder. His playing resembles such guitarists like Uli Jon Roth (check his "Earthquake" album with Electric Sun), applying japanese scales to the guitar(another unusual thing among metal guitarists). In order to enjoy this album, you gotta be very open minded musically. Otherwise, you'll find this release very boring. It's not the usual Friedman, and it's not the usual Shrapnel Records release, which makes the album even more enjoyable and unpredictable. One more detail: Megadeth's drummer Nick Menza plays here also, and still, there's no metal music here.