Philip Sayce - Influence album review

It would be bold of me to say, but I truly believe that in Philip Sayce we have a guitar God among us. His debut, 2009's Peace Machine, was, if anything, an attempt to replicate Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn for 15 tracks - rather than an original effort. It demonstrated his ferocious, fuzzy, wah infested, screaming, raw blues tone, and immediately catapulted him onto a pedestal with the best players ever. That said, it wasn't a particularly diverse piece of work. Five years on we have 2014's Influence - the Electric Ladyland of Sayce's discography if you will - a masterful performance of stratospheric proportions.

As the title alludes, Influence has a few covers; Ed Lewis and Prisoners' Tom Devil, Graham Nash's Better Days and Green Power by Little Richard. These tracks add the diversity that was arguably missing from Peace Machine, but there's still plenty of what Sayce's fans love him for; heavy riffs, screaming distortion and fluttering vibrato. Miles Miller and Chris Powell, on drums and bass respectively, compliment Sayce to such an extent, it isn't too far off feeling like you're listening to The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Out Of My Mind, I'm Going Home and Light Em Up, in particular, are majestic exhibitions of perfect chaos and intense rackets - vigorous riffs finished off with implausibly exceptional solos.

Sayce - like Hendrix with Little Wing - also shows that he has a softer side. The guitar on Fade Into You flanges beautifully with a tonne of reverb, almost dreamily, building and building, before Sayce launches into the best solo I've ever heard on a Sayce album. Triumph is similar although in instrumental form.

It will be very difficult for Sayce to out do this album - it represents his blossoming maturity as both a musician and guitarist - but whatever he comes up with, no doubt it'll be out of this world.

Rating - 9/10

Sixx:A.M. - Vol. 1 Prayers For The Damned album review

Sixx:A.M. was established nearly ten years ago as a side project for Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx. Accompanied by Guns 'N' Roses guitarist, DJ Ashba and producer come singer, James Michael, the trio put together an audio documentation of Nikki's heroin addiction from his book; The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star. Brutal honesty, unsettling imagery and complex track mixing would define it and the three albums that followed.

Prayers For The Damned features many familiar themes; drug abuse, rehab and anarchy to name three. Rousing anthems When We Were Gods, Better Man and You Have Come To The Right Place are bookmarks on the album, exhibiting the extraordinary combination of Sixx's songwriting, Ashba's flamboyant fret-work and Michael's emotion ridden vocals.

There's lots of variety here too, though. Rise and Rise Of The Melancholy Empire are poles apart but both are executed with the same oomph and gusto. The former is clearly designed for non-stop commercial radio plays with it's rousing call to arms, whereas the latter is a slow burner that takes a minute to evolve from a melancholy piano verse into a thumping drum and rhythm guitar driven chorus, and finally Ashba's best solo on the disc to cap off a polished six minutes of dexterous musicianship. Safe to say it's going to be a song that's rarely played live, which says how far Sixx has come having been in a band that primarily specialized in crowd pleasing three minute tracks without much texture or substance.

PFTD is a grand departure from what Sixx was doing for 34 years previously and compellingly so - although it's difficult to compare the two bands in terms of musical style - but the step up in musical quality may be down to his band mates. Either that or he was being massively held back in Crue, which wouldn't be surprising when Vince Neil is your lead singer.

Rating - 7.5/10