Heavy Guitars - Structural Damage (2002)Brennus Music

What names are in front of you when you think of guitar duo? Jason Becker & Marty Friedman of Cacophony? Paul Gilbert & Bruce Bouillet of Racer X? Maybe T.J. Helmerich & Brett Garsed? Richie Kotzen & Greg Howe? Strunz and Farah? Any new contemporary ones? No problem! Herman Li & Sam Totman of Dragonforce! Lars Eric Mattsson & Rusty Cooley of Book Of Reflections! And it's high time I should announce two guitar shredders of Heavy Guitar project from France!

I am pretty sure that you know Mr. Cyril Lepizzera for his two solo releases described in the Issue 1. I'd like only to complete my comment that he was graduated from Conservatory of Marseille (classical guitar) and prestigious IMFP (jazz school in the vicinity of Marseille). Apart from his solo activity, he cooperated with a band Blizzard and David Hernandez among others. Cyril's playmate - Richard Roncarolo is a self-educated guitarist, but with some experiences in Blizzard and his R.A.S Project. Cyril was matching his guitar style with Richard's in Blizzard, but a real rehearsals were done on two demos - "RefleXions" and "Abnormal Gravity". Obviously, the quintessence of their effort is available on the first and only one debut album titled "Structural Damage". If someone claims that words "shredding" and "emotions" are mutually exclusive, I am inviting you to listen to Heavy Guitar's material in the first place. Here are heavy riffs being crossed with melodic lines and guitar solos. There is also a gap for acoustic interpolations when we are able to relax a little bit. A track "Loving Memories" (dedicated to Jason Becker and available on the tribute titled "Warmth in the Wilderness - Vol. 2") is subdued and points to us how big influence has been American virtuoso on those Frenchmen (it is most audible in slower fragments). All notes were played just-in-time without an excess of form. They don't fight against themselves with their guitar axes, but rather collaborate in friendly relationships. I will only mention about guest appearance of Cyril Achard in "Jawbreaker", but I prefer writing more about his solo release, Morbid Feeling and Taboo Vodoo in the future to describing effusivelly his guitar style here. Cyril is a classy instrumentalist and his devotees know that for sure. Production is rough enough, so even neoclassical "Prelude" sounds really heavy!

For me, it isn't a typical shredding metal, but rather a kind of shred/rock mixture. You can find a caption "shred is not dead" in the booklet. Yeah, shredder can also play slow and emotionally as well! Therefore, mentioned inscription should be considered a true. Nevertheless, I can honestly recommend Heavy Guitar to the same group of people that is enchanted by Matthew Mills', Curt Shaw's and Darin Moore's playing.