There are players who make solo records because they want to show you how clever they are. Then there are players like Gus G, who already knows you know.
That is the point, perhaps, of “Steel Burner”, his fifth solo record. It is technically dazzling, obviously, because this is Gus G we are talking about. But what is more important is that it is heavy as hell. Somehow, in its instrumental moments, it is even more powerful than when it has lyrics.
The title track rather tells the story. Originally commissioned for a company that makes industrial machines used to shape metal, it was inspired by a huge piece of kit called a Steel Burner. That sounds faintly ridiculous until you hear it, at which point it makes perfect sense. This thing moves like machinery. Relentless, precise, dangerous, and absolutely gleaming.
Gus handles all guitars, bass, keyboards and drums himself, which is either showing off or simply what happens when you are this good. Maybe both. Either way, “Steel Burner” and “Advent” make it clear early on that the playing is incredible throughout. There is flash, naturally, but never the sort of empty look-at-me fretboard athletics that turns records like this into homework.
The guest vocalists are perfectly chosen too. “Nothing Can Break Me” brings in Doro, and frankly she is as good as it gets. There is metal royalty, and then there is Doro Pesch, and this is the sort of thing she was born to sing.
Likewise, when you put Matt Barlow on “Dancing With Death”, you know what you are aiming for. The skill here is that Gus G understands the balance perfectly. The song has to fit the voice, not the other way round, and Barlow’s grand, dramatic delivery gives the track real weight.
That might be the real trick across the whole thing. Gus finds songs that suit the protagonists. “Frenemy” gives Ronnie Romero all the space he needs, melody and muscle together, almost like the best of both worlds, while “No One Has To Know” is a real highlight because Dino Jelusick is involved. Put simply, modern rock singing does not get much better.
“What If” is interesting too, given that Gus sings it himself, and it shows another side without derailing the record. Then “Confession” offers a genuine change of pace. The instrumentals here are so good anyway, but this one has jazz tinges, a different feel, and it explodes into something close to a crescendo.
“My Premonition” underlines the cleverness of the guest choices again, Ronnie Romero sounding utterly at home, before “Closure” begins acoustically and then gives way to guitar work that is exactly what it says. And that is prog.
By the end, “Steel Burner” has made its case. Heavy, melodic, classy and played with frightening skill, this is not just a guitar album.
It is a Gus G album. That means the metal is molten.
RATING: 8.5/10
