2001: A Shred Odyssey

Joe Stump is a truly technically gifted guitarist. His nimble fingers can hit notes like few virtuosos can. That is why 2001: A Shred Odyssey is such a huge disappointment, because despite his incredible technical ability, he cannot seem to pull a song together. The opening track lays down this fact right away when he plays an endless guitar solo that is blindingly fast but has virtually no musical basis. This could be viewed as avant-garde until the rest of the album kicks in and Stump reveals that he is merely a shredder, nothing more, nothing less. This is fine, but his inability to write a memorable backing track for his songs is quite disturbing. The best guitarists in this genre, whether it be Steve Vai or Joe Satriani or any well known virtuoso, have a keen sense of what can keep a track going so they can continue to solo without losing the listener's interest. Stump is not so lucky, his most memorable song is "Still So Sad," which is a wanky cover of an old Yardbirds song. This may be of interest to those who follow the guitar virtuoso mini-genre that has popped up in hard rock, but this is a pretty boring album that can easily bore a casual listener.