Killer Guitar 2014
Up against the global ugliness, virtuoso guitarist looks for beauty on his ultimate art album.
Touring with Roger Waters didn’t provide Dave Kilminster with a lot of creative input but has put him in the on-the-wall spotlight. More so, it helped the axeman sharpen his vision on our current situation, which the artist addresses on a sequel to 2007’s "Scarlet". “I called it ‘The Truth,’ partly because the world is so full of lies now… not just in music, but everywhere,” said Dave during our recent chat yet, instead of spilling the blood like its predecessor, this record expands Kilminster melodic reach.
Reunited with bassist Phil Williams and drummer Pete Riley who played with him in Keith Emerson’s band and on “Scarlet,” the guitarist takes an experimental approach to the tuning here, which doesn’t get in the way of songs, all eight of them, including epic, if lucid, finale “Stardust” that leads the listener back to the beginning. And the start of the cycle comes with “Messiah” whose acoustic reverie resolves its tension into a memorable chorus and a blues rage of orchestral proportions – stoked with a string quartet feeding the anger in the shred-embroidered “Thieves” as well – while “Addict” throws the heavy crunch back into harmonic slumber. There’s yearning in the soulful desperation of “Circles” but, having referenced Paul Simon, “Save Me” offers an unplugged plea before the intricate drones of “Cassiopeia” shape up a polyphonic interstellar trip.
It may get angular with “The Fallen” which shifts from AOR into Hendrixiana and back again, in order to link personal affairs to the woes of the world via six-string acrobatics and apocalyptic vision, yet there’s an optimistic flight in there. Overall, the nocturnal feel of the album, and one’s life, holds a lot of light – that’s the ultimate, unbinding truth. Dave Kilminster finally delivered his masterpiece we’ve been waiting for for years.
*****