Charon: Sorry to see you go

I have VonGoober radio to thank for my first exposure to Charon. This was back when Steve Shumake ran his own Live365 station and I was a loyal listener. Every time I tuned in I discovered bands that I'd never heard of, many of them hailing from outside the U.S. During one such listening session, I heard "Unbreak, Unchain" from Charon's album, "The Dying Daylights" and my musical life changed.

Charon's music captures a unique blend of melancholy and power. Typically they are classified as gothic metal and utilize keyboards and female harmony vocals, traits consistent with the style. Many of their lyrics involve fire and death but the effect of their music for me is mostly soothing and engulfing. Their strong, steady rhythm tracks and harmonic motions lay down the perfect foundation for Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto (aka JP).

This in no way is meant to detract from the contributions of his bandmates, but Charon's sound, their entire mood, is thoroughly entwined with JP's voice. He has an incredibly deep, rich timbre, which allows him to communicate deep emotion without relying heavily on rasp or growl. His voice evokes some hints of Sisters of Mercy, while capturing some of the darker side of Johnny Cash and yet, JP is unique and stands on his own.

I spent much of my musical growth years admiring vocalists like Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and Klaus Meine, all great singers in their own rights. Heavy metal has a long, glorious history of near-operatic vocalists, male and female singers that deliver power in their upper registers, many of them delivering their melodies without much rasp or grit. When I discovered Charon, my definition of a great metal singer expanded to cover a much lower range of pitch. I still love the bands whose singers are way up there, the ones who can hit unbelievable highs and leave you imagining shattered wine glasses. Honestly, thought, if I actually had a say in it, I'd be in a band with a singer like JP. Or better yet, the singer would be JP.

Sadly, Charon only released one more non-compilation album after "The Dying Daylights". In 2005 they released "Songs for the Sinners", an album that has grown to equal status with its predecessor in my collection. It's hard to pick favorite songs, but I highly recommend starting with "Unbreak, Unchain" and "Religious/Delicious" from "The Dying Daylights". On "Songs for the Sinners", I suggest listening to "Colder" and "Deep Water", then go on from there. After a long period of inactivity in the studio, Charon released "A-Sides, B-Sides and Sucides" compilation in 2010. Then in 2011 they announced their final performances would occur in their home country of Finland, during the midsummer.

I am deeply sorry I never got to see Charon perform live. My family's trip to Sweden and Finland this coming summer will happen too late for that. Instead, I will go on treasuring the music they recorded and hope that perhaps, someday, I'll at least get to see JP perform live.

If you were lucky enough to see Charon perform, would you share your experiences? Those of us in the Americas would love to hear what that was like, to be in the same room, listening to and watching the band perform. If there's a next chapter for the band's members, will we get a chance to experience that outside of their home turf?

Great guitarists - The never-ending story

In a recent article I talked about guitarists that impacted my early development, leading up to the grunge and nu-metal eras where lead playing was less of a focus. Fortunately for me, The 21st century has been a rebirthing period for lead guitar. There were two key discoveries that mark the beginning of the next generation of lead guitar for me.

I remember one night, getting gas at a little indie station on El Camino in Redwood City, probably summer/fall 2005. Don't even remember what station I was listening to; I have this odd memory it was actually a "modern rock" station rather than a classic rock or metal station. That was the moment I first heard Avenged Sevenfold (aka A7X), their "Bat Country" single just blew my mind. A7X manages to meld a lot of different styles into their predominantly metal songs. For me, there's a level of musicality in their songs that sets them apart. Synyster Gates brought me back again to my deep love of neoclassical, melodic lead guitar in the context of metal. He has a remarkable ear for note choice; his lead lines travel with confidence across the underlying harmonic motion. And there's nothing better than watching the right-handed Synyster and Zacky Vengeance, a lefty, on stage, blowing through harmony lead after harmony lead.

In 2007, I decided to attend Uli Jon Roth's Sky Academy guitar workshop in Hollywood. It was an exciting experience to be surrounded by guitarists that love Uli's playing, all of whom inspired me to continue improving on the instrument I love. I finished that trip with a couple of new and great friends (Errol and Carl, you know I'm talkin' 'bout you!) but there was another key element of that workshop. I'd known of Paul Gilbert by name for quite a few years, but for no good reason had never quite immersed myself in his playing. Paul changed that with his performances at the Sky Academy concerts that week. Oddly enough, it wasn't his amazing neoclassical chops, his sweep picking or his uptempo Racer X instrumentals. Nope, it was his Hendrix covers (here's Foxy Lady as an example). Paul showed up in a T-shirt and jeans, carried out a combo amp and proceeded to let loose a combination of blues licks, Hendrix-esque vocals and some true PG gymnastics, punctuated by his ever-present sense of humor. That did it, I was hooked. I now count Racer X among my most listened to bands and look forward to someday getting to see Paul play live again. If you ever get the chance, see him...

Thanks to Synyster Gates and Paul Gilbert I began to dig into my truest musical love, heavy melodic classically influenced music. This marked the beginning of another guitar chapter in my life, one revolving around regular practice and my renewed desire to develop new chops. In a way, it's also been a very hard period for me. I've actively tried to move beyond the instinctive legato approach that developed in my Joe Satriani/hair metal days. I've worked for years trying to redevelop my right hand, learn sweep picking (arpeggios and scales) and get my two hands synchronized in a way that was never an issue with legato playing.

In the midst of my sweep picking quest, I finally got sucked into the 7-string trend. Before I bought my first 7-string, though, I did a lot of research trying to find an instrument that was right for me. I've never been that comfortable playing Ibanez guitars, and have for many years made Tom Anderson guitars my main tool-of-the-trade. At the time, however, 7-strings were a special order item from Anderson, and I wasn't ready to take that plunge until I'd had some 7-string experience. Enter Jeff Loomis and Schecter. The Jeff Loomis signature guitar was the first maple neck 7-string, with a Floyd Rose tremolo that was laid out just right for me. I ended up ordering the Loomis signature from our local music store, Music Villa, and my love affair with 7-strings began. My fascination with Jeff's playing began the same way. I'd never been a big Nevermore fan, perhaps because there was a little too much thrash and death metal in their material for me, but Jeff's guitar playing cannot be ignored. As I researched guitars, I started watching videos of various models and quickly fell onto this clip of Jeff. Finally, Jeff's right hand explained everything. He plays amazingly fast and yet his right hand is very calm. His combination of alternate and sweep picking, and minimal up/down motion made me realize the secret. Only move as much as necessary, pick the right notes with the right choices of up- or downstroke. I doubt I'll ever master the process the way Jeff has but it's great to have his example to follow.

While researching EMG pickups, I also ran across Andy Wood and this video. Andy is another guy with a very "quiet" right hand. He's also amazing in multiple ways, having only taken up guitar in his teens and being a virtuoso in country, bluegrass and killer metal chops. If you haven't heard Andy or his band, Down From Up, you must do so!

And that brings me to today, as I sit watching Jeff Loomis's latest EMG video. I strive desperately to maintain a 1-hour practice routine focused on sweep picking of scales and arpeggios. I play my Jeff Loomis signature and my recent Tom Anderson 7-string whenever I can. And I thank the Internet for the discovery of Jeff Loomis and Andy Wood. The best thing about music is that it's always new; it can't sit still or stagnate because there are always new generations of musicians ready to take it in new directions. Who have you discovered lately that renews your excitement about music?

I love my Powerball

I'd been out of work for almost 6 months. I'd been laid off by Adobe after working there for 6 years and my life had turned upside down. My daughter, Kiley, had been born about a year before the layoff, and we were hoping to add another one soon. Thanks to a great friend and former coworker at Adobe, I had just landed a new job working for Freehand Systems. The painful and exciting 6 months of freedom and exploration was almost over but there was time for one last indulgence.

I called ahead and spoke to Ed Yoon at Tone Merchants in Anaheim. They were the only dealer within my drivable radius that carried a variety of boutique amps. They actually had them all in stock, so I asked about their hours to see if I could drive to Anaheim and select my next guitar amp. Ed explained that they had relatively loose hours but he'd make sure to be in the shop on Friday when I drove down and I could check out any amp I wanted to.

I got up very early on Friday morning, threw my Tom Anderson Drop-Top in the trunk of our 2002 Camaro and headed south. I reached Tone Merchants by early afternoon, parked the Camaro and grabbed my axe out of the trunk. The shop was a relatively nondescript street-level retail space, and when I entered there were no customers in the store. Ed came out of the office and, after introductions, we started talking about what I was looking for and what I should try. He pointed me to a bunch of heads, a Rivera, a Diezel, an H&K and the ENGL Powerball (first generation model).

Now, what followed was Ed's single stroke of genius, his moment of perfection (at least with respect to this customer). He said something like, "Take as much time as you need. I'll be in the office if you have any questions. Don't worry about cranking these up, you need to hear them loud to appreciate them." And, then he left me alone for a couple hours. No other customer ever came in; I had the whole place to myself and got to put every one of those amps through its paces. When the dust finally settled, the decision was obvious. The ENGL Powerball was the right match for me. It has everything from a ridiculously over-the-top high gain distortion, ranging from dark and evil to bright and singing. And it also gives me great clean and crunch tones. I fell for the Powerball that day and I continue to love it almost 10 years later.

But, there was a minor hiccup along the way. I was building my rig around a Sound Sculpture Switchblade and planned to use its relays to channel switch the Powerball. I built all my cables by hand, carefully soldering every connection and reinforcing all the connectors with heat-shrink tubing. I got everything wired up, flipped the switches and started configuring the Switchblade. And then, it all went wrong. The Switchblade wouldn't switch the Powerball consistently. Sometimes the channels would change, other times they'd remain the same. The relays would often work the first time, then stop working after that. Another day or two of debugging and talking to the folks at Sound Sculpture revealed that not only were the Switchblade's relays getting wedged, but the Powerball was very likely to blame.

Despite strong evidence from my own debugging and advice from Sound Sculpture, it still took quite awhile to get this resolved. First, I contacted Ed Yoon and he put me in contact with Bernd Aufermann, a rep for ENGL in Germany. I worked through another round of triage on the problem with Bernd and finally he put me in touch with Horst Langer, ENGL's amp designer. To this day, I am so pleased with Horst's response. He immediately took my problem seriously and did some debugging of his own. It took months to reach a solution but after additional email with both Sound Sculpture and Horst, I received an email from Horst explaining how to build a custom cable to use for the Switchblade relay jacks that I connect to the Powerball. I very carefully assembled the cables and once again hooked up the entire system. Finally, thanks to all the hard work from Sound Sculpture, Horst Langer and yours truly, I have been able to control the Powerball via the Switchblade without a hitch.

I never looked back. The Powerball has operated flawlessly ever since. I've tracked guitars for two albums and a number of side projects, all using the amp. I still love it. In fact, I love it so much that when I ran across an ENGL Sovereign combo on eBay, it was a no-brainer. I bought the amp sight unseen and unheard. Now I've got the same great tone in a small package, one I can easily carry to rehearsals and sessions.

ENGL makes great amps that are a perfect fit for my tone needs. What's your favorite amp? What do you like about it? What did you have to go through to make it your main rig?

Great guitarists - From whence I came

Those were the days when you learned about bands and guitarists in record stores and magazines. There was a limited supply of new, compelling guitarists in heavy music. Mind you, there were lots of great guitarists, much like today, it just took more effort to discover them and the ones you knew about were typically the same ones everyone else knew about.

Aerosmith was a big early influence for me, particularly the Toys In The Attic and Rocks albums. That was around the time Joe Perry was on the cover of Guitar Player magazine with his B.C. Rich. I loved the dark bluesy tone Joe was so good at getting. I still think the Joe Perry/Brad Whitford combo is right up there with Angus and Malcolm Young, a duo with a unique combined sound, and one that acted as a gateway into heavier styles of music.

At that time, there wasn't the same level of specialization and division in heavy music. The same folks that went to see Aerosmith were likely to go see Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Scorpions. These days you're much more likely to get the "if it's not down-tuned 7-string melodic death metal, it sucks" attitudes. Fortunately I've mostly managed to avoid that trap, which allowed me to expand my interests into a number of the European hard rock bands of that era. Three of my biggest influences, Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth and Ritchie Blackmore all come from that pedigree. I wore out my UFO, Scorps and and Rainbow albums, covering songs like "Too Hot To Handle", "Speedy's Coming" and "Man On The Silver Mountain" in my high school bands. That was a turning point for me, because it brought back a bunch of my classical study from my pre-teen years and gave it a home in heavy music.

The next big milestone for my musical evolution was the year I spent at G.I.T. in Hollywood. That was in the heart of the hair metal era, and MTV made it easy to discover guys like George Lynch of Dokken and Warren DeMartini of Ratt. Combined with the lessons I had taken in high school from Joe Satriani, that trio of guitarists had a huge impact on my approach to the instrument. Legato runs, whammy bar, Strat-style guitars with humbuckers - all became staples of my sound. I worked out some of Lynch's and DeMartini's solos, and ended up playing in a cover band in Boulder, Colorado that played a lot of Van Halen, Ratt, Scorpions and Dokken. It's been a pleasure watching both Lynch and DeMartini continue to evolve as players and to this day I smile every time I hear either of them play a note.

Before I move on, there's one guitarist that had a huge influence on me and yet falls outside what most people associate with the term "heavy". My Boulder cover band not only played hair metal, it also played a lot of 80s new wave, including The Cars. It's amazing what Elliot Easton can say in a few bars. His solos always tell a story, are usually intricate and always unique. Elliot's playing taught me that you didn't need an endless Ted Nugent solo to make a big statement and I'm thankful I was exposed to Elliot's playing at that point in my music career.

By the time I made it back to the Bay Area to finish my undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley, bands like Metallica and Megadeth had really established themselves as the next generation of heavy metal. I was always drawn more to Megadeth, I think primarily because of Marty Friedman. He played so many amazing solos for Megadeth, but perhaps the one that haunts me the most (because it's such a challenge to learn and play) is in "Ashes In Your Mouth". Just had to listen to it again as I write this... Wow! Marty always makes the runs sound smooth and artistic, no matter how complex. It's not just the notes, but how he plays them.

Soon after came the grunge and nu-metal periods, where there was a bit of an anti-lead guitar attitude. Even guys that were great lead players tended not to solo much, and that was a very disappointing period for me, despite my love for both of those musical styles. I just didn't have the same supply of new lead players to constantly challenge me and provide new, exciting ideas. Fortunately, as the 1990s passed and we entered the new century, a new generation of great players suddenly erupted.

I will cover the latest generation of guitarists that are closest to my heart in an upcoming article. While you're waiting, how about sharing some of the guitarists that influenced you? Regardless of style or genre, who do you think influenced you the most?

Firewind - new album just days away

It's hard not to have heard about Gus G. at this point. Over the last decade, he's gone from an unknown to his current role as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist. Somehow, in the midst of everything he's also managed to contribute his amazing guitar work for Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage, Arch Enemy and Dream Evil. However, there is one band that bears his mark more completely than any, namely Firewind. Originally formed in 1998 to showcase Gus' demo, Nocturnal Symphony, within three years the band released their first album (Between Heaven And Hell) and has been busy ever since.

Still, the message didn't completely hit home for me until October of 2011. I was heading back to the Bay Area for a workshop and to spend time with my parents. I wanted to make the most of the trip by catching some great music and visiting my favorite Bay Area venues to do some research for the Music Tech Center. I lucked out, the Frets of Fury tour was scheduled at Slim's in San Francisco during my stay and there was no question I'd be there.

What a show it was. As expected, Gus G. put on a clinic, demonstrating exactly why he's at or near the top of nearly every "great metal guitarist" list out there these days. What's even more amazing about Firewind, though, is that the entire band is unbelievable. Just when you start focusing on Gus G.'s guitar work, you find your attention captured by the power and polish of Apollo Papathanasio's vocals and his easy audience interaction. And the band would be nowhere without the pummeling wall of thunder generated by Petros Christodoulidis on bass and Johan Nunez on drums.

But that night at Slim's, the guy that completely blew me away was Bob Katsionis. Every time Gus G. plays an unbelievable line, Bob is there to answer with his own display of dexterity on the keyboards. And if that weren't enough, Bob takes care of harmony lead guitars, keeping up with Gus throughout the show. Even that, however, doesn't take the cake. No, the two things that sealed the deal on that show were all Bob. First of all, there was a moment during the set where Bob ends up backing his own right-handed keyboard solo while comping the rhythm guitar part with his left hand. Then later in the set, to make it worse, he used a similar two-handed approach to harmonize a lead line between keyboard and his guitar. I've always had a soft spot for the utility infielders of the music world, guys who cover multiple instruments, pretty much doing whatever the band needs them to. In particular, Paul Raymond always impressed me in how easily he moved between keyboards and rhythm guitar. Bob Katsionis ups the ante big time, through virtuoso performances on the same two instruments, while always putting on a great show and appearing to be thoroughly enjoying every moment.

If you've managed not to hear Firewind, check out "Days of Defiance", and on May 22nd grab a copy of their brand new release, "Few Against Many". If you love great musicianship and melodic heavy metal, you will not be disappointed. And, while you're at it, check out this concert-style official video for the first single (Wall of Sound) off the new album. You'll get a great sense for Firewind's live show but in the end, you really need to get out there and see the band live.