Sean Baker - “The Sean Baker Orchestra” CD review
Sean Baker is a progressive virtuoso instrumentalist, conductor, and first chair guitarist of “The Sean Baker Orchestra”. The music on their debut self-titled CD runs the gamut from progressive heavy metal to classical and neo-classical face-melting shred. In fact, calling the album heavy metal would be an understatement! I wouldn’t label it instrumental “death” metal, but it’s extremely hardcore stuff and Sean is definitely not afraid of getting his hands dirty with some unforgiving shred!
Bruce Bouillet (formerly of Racer X, and now guitarist in Paul Gilbert’s G3 tour group) even engineered, mixed and guested on the album, and I wouldn’t have expected any less from him. The album sounds like a powerful return to roots for the instrumental metal guitar genre. All of Sean’s shred lines are packed with cool melodies and interesting phrasing, layered on top of the already super heavy background riffage.
12 tracks in all, including “Prelude in D Minor” (J.S. Bach) played on an acoustic guitar, which demonstrates Sean’s classical skills. There’s also a slightly mellow song called “4/2/89”, which is refreshing. But other than that there’s very little room to relax, so if you’re not used to this kind of heaviness you may need to lie down for awhile in between songs!
Sean plays nothing but Ibanez PGM guitars (or guitars previously owned by Paul Gilbert), and while the Gilbert / Racer X influence definitely shows, Sean retains his own voice on the instrument. PGM’s have never sounded so monstrous! You can listen to tracks off the album on the official Sean Baker Orchestra myspace.
This album is a great buy if you’re a fan of older guitar-crazy bands like Racer X and Cacophony, and even if you’re not do yourself a favor and give “The Sean Baker Orchestra” a chance to prove their worth. And keep an eye out for Sean’s next album due out later this year, which will feature guest solos by Bouillet, Joe Stump, Marc Rizzo, and Rusty Cooley!
Essential Sean Baker links:
-- Dave B.