Lars Eric Mattsson - Electric Voodoo

Finnish axeslinger, Lars Eric Mattsson who plays as what he describes to be "classically influenced guitar dominated metal", sees his third (and perhaps best) album re-released. Once titled "The Exciter" for its US and European 1991 original unleashing, not only has the disc gained a fresh remastering job this time around, but also a new title, "Electric Voodoo". Before actually getting to the review let's launch into a little background on my stance on these type of albums.

While many discs of what are considered to be instrumental classics have found their way into the stereo at one time or another, all have failed to capture a place in the heavy rotation pile, usually being pushed towards the back of the collection to spend eternity collecting dust. Having been through the majority of works by Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore, Alex Masi and many others, the only one to have triumphed is Yngwie Malmsteen's first outing which does deserve the too often tossed around term 'classic'. The rest radiate with this air of self indulgence, simply vehicles for the 'look! see how fast we can play!' mindset and to round things off, the tune is usually slapped with a ridiculously stupid name. Maybe I'm too much of a 'vocal whore' to appreciate these 'works of art', but as often said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and at this point I guess I must be blind.

"Electric Voodoo" is haunted by some of these ghosts that leech the life essence of enjoyment out of completely instrumental cds. These include: not enough substance to make these tunes sound like individual pieces, some tracks lack a well defined structure, causing them to wander around too much, and yes, there is the fleet fingered plague festering mightily that makes one pause and wonder why it was necessary to go into a shred fest at that particular moment, but overall the cd makes pleasant background music with a few surprises thrown in to catch the casual listener off guard.

Mattsson has a special sound that will please the hordes of guitar freaks. A soft bluesy edge lurks in there, but what pops out is his pristine touch that hints of other Scandanavian neo-classical shredmasters like John Norum and Yngwie Malmsteen and the magnificent delicate melody of Michael Schenker. For the album he is the only musician, handling guitars, synthesizers, keyboards, bass, and electric percussion. That's right, there is a drum machine present here that lacks the warmth of real live and kickin drums, but since this is Mattsson's guitar show, its not such a big deal.

1. "Reflections" - Using the sound swelling gimmick, it takes about thirty seconds for the opener to take flight but when it finally does, Lars comes out in full swing, dazzling with guitar heroics and various percussion oddities. The thumping rhythm section give the track a solid, and very metal feeling, backbone.

2. "Chrome Kills" - An excerise in dexterity with scales abound, its rocking with a good upbeat pacing.

3. "The Cry of Love" - Plenty to cry about here, as Mattsson searches his sentimental side, but it drones a little on the longside, and ends up coming across as being artificial in places. More emotion and shorter song length would have made this spectacular.

4. "Apocalypse"- ...is heads and tails above the rest of the bunch. Consistant and fluid, guitarists who aspire to release vocal-less albums take note, this is the way it should be done. Those (like moi) who have been frightened away from instrumental discs should ease their way into the guitar hero subgenre by indulging in this fantastic tune. Listening to this is like opening a carton of plain jane vanilla ice cream and discovering that its actually premium banana split sundae complete with the chocolate ribbon and strawberry sauce. Over the course of the song, Mattsson's guitar licks like a wind blown flame until it stretches out into the form of a magnificent firebird that towards the ending will melt and collapse into its own ashes. A beautiful sweeping, but very powerful piece with a nice neo-classical feel.

5. "Adagio" - Well performed with the guitar performance takes the cake and eats it too, but of course this whole album is made simply to showcase Mattsson's guitar playing. A sprinkling of keys give the song some breezily cool overtones. A 'real' drummer would have turned this pretty tune into a real treat though.

6. "Electric Voodoo" - This sounds like video game music. I can see this track being in a fast paced 2d shooter like one of the games in the Thunderforce series. Tinkering synth sounds and a hauntingly acoustic filled sparse midsection give it a bit of a different edge.

7. "The Exciter" - Typical fare, nothing too exciting, but there are a few strange sounds that make it interesting at various points.

8. "Little Rock" - Dizzying electric guitar acrobatics kicked up into warp speed make a fine display of quick paced showmanship in a heavy metal setting.

9. "Green Cats" - Goofy name but this *is* an instrumental solo disc isn't it? And nothing could possibly get stupider than a title such as "The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing" (Satch). Speaking of grooves, this has a cool one to go along with some other unique sound effects. The guitar twirls and spins around in arpeggio filled scales and then slides into a straightup funky feel.

10. "Way Out" - Pleasant enough with a rather uninspired 'rhythm section' but the mystically weaving guitar brings to mind images of trying to find one's way out of a labyrinth of either fantastical creation or trapped in Earthly situations. Has a Satriani-like feel in the way its composed.

11. "Sacrifice of Love" - A nice bonus track for this tenth anniversary re-issue, featuring some rather delicate moments. Sweet and laid back with Island type percussion.

Often considered to be Lars Eric Mattsson's best solo recording, "Electric Voodoo" is finally now made widely available thanks to the folks at Lion Music. While the new packaging is nothing to get excited about with the cover looking like it was created by someone tinkering around with Photoshop for a few minutes in their spare time, the remastering is definitely a plus as it boosts the quality of the sound enough for it to be noticeable. The bonus track might not be worth writing home about either, but having this album back in circulation is. Even though the drum machine ends up becoming tedious and predictable and the songs follow suit before the disc comes to a close, there is still enough here to recommend this to the shredfanatics, even if only for "Apocalypse". No matter what genre you are into, that song simply kicks butt, period. Give this one a look and a listen even if for that single track, its most assuredly worth it.

Ratings and Wrap Up:
7.8
Songs - 7.0, Performance - 8.6, Production - 8.5
Hot Spots: "Apocalypse", "Green Cats", "Adagio"
Bottom Line: guitar fans will love it, the rest... ah... "Apocalypse!"

Review by Alanna Evans -
longs for vocals

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