Plains of Oblivion

I'm just going to say right off the bat that I don't know where to start with this album here. The one and only Jeff Loomis has released another piece of material known as "Plains of Oblivion" and considering that Loomis is a dedicated and talented guitar player we could expect something good from this instalment. This album contains several tracks with some guest musicians ranging from Marty Friedman and Chris Poland to Isahn and Christine Rhoads, some sounded really good and others just fell flat on their faces.

For one, Loomis' riffs and shredding ability are absolutely mind blowing on this album and they can really get a groove going, having that along with guitar wankery from Poland and Friedman added a nice touch. Isahn delivered some powerful vocals and some unknown artists (to me at least) made a wealthy contribution. Although to every instalment there's always some sort of flaw, I'm really not feeling the love with the Christine Rhoads tracks because I feel that they're way too soft for an album such as this, catchy perhaps, but not the best I've heard.

Finally, this album is so predictable that it hurts. Every track is just guitar wanking and maybe if we're lucky we'll get some vocals on there mixed with the shredding. There's nothing new and let's be honest, we want more of the cool shit, but less of the fuckery displayed on every track. Loomis has so much capability and he's a talented musician, no mistake about that. I must stress, however, that he should stick to being in a band rather than playing on his own, he'd get more attention that way and a bigger fan base.