siLLy puPPy MARTY FRIEDMAN displays his most diverse album yet on his 11th album INFERNO. The secret to the wide array of sounds on this one is not only does MARTY mine his entire output of the past for sounds and ideas but also includes a whole army of guest musicians to make a highly successful solo album that doesn’t sound as such. Despite it officially being a solo album this is a true collaborative effort of many different talents on board with MARTY on board as the official director of the project. I can suspect that he may have gotten this idea from Buckethead’s “Enter The Chicken” from 2005 which takes this same approach.

As with his usual solo albums INFERNO displays aspects of thrash and progressive metal with his unique virtuosic neoclassical solo skills in full display. MARTY has been a favorite guitarist of mine for some time because he doesn’t rely on technical skills alone but rather deftly intertwines them with brilliant ideas with emotional depth well beyond the average guitar wankery. There is flamenco / metal fusion on “Wicked Panacea” with Rodrigo y Gariela, industrial metal sounding pounding on “Steroidhead,” the punk inspired “I Can’t Relax,” the John Zorn meets groove metal track “Meat Hook” with Jørgen Munkeby delivering an absolutely killer sax frenzy, the death metal meets melodic trad on “Sociopaths” with David Davidson screaming on vocals, the sublime guest vocals of Alexi Laiho of Children Of Bodom on “Lycanthrop” and “Horrors” which somehow compiles guitar action from Jason Becker who is now paralyzed from Lou Gehrig’s Disease (probably an archival thing).

If you love the high energy intensity of his debut “Dragon’s Kiss” and the Cacophany albums with all the influences from the experimental fusion albums ranging from “Scenes” to “Tokyo Jukebox” then you will love this. I have to say that MARTY FRIEDMAN never rests on his laurels and despite an album or two that gets bogged down in a pool of stagnate reservoirs, more often than not MARTY knows how to up his game delivering some seriously intensely creative metal guitar with smokin’ sizzlin’ solos that blow away most of the competition. I personally think this is one of MARTY’s best despite having a very consistent discography on his hands.