In 1998, 22 year old Galysh recorded an instrumental guitar album in the basement of his parent’s house. It formed the basis of a career that has seen him playing with the likes of Uli Jon Roth, become an in demand session musician as well as writing for Guitar World magazine. Fast forward to 2018 and what we have here is a newly recorded version of the album (this time with the talents of Alice Cooper drummer Glen Sobel – Sobel used to play live with Galysh so already knew much of the material), plus a remastered edition of the original, plus a couple of live versions as well. This means the album has been stretched from 9 to 20 songs, 7 of which are repeated and two of which are heard three times.
But, none of that is actually a bad thing. In many ways it is an album of its time, but was probably a little dated even then, as the two albums which had obviously had the most impact were already getting on years, but in many ways neither ‘Surfing With The Alien’ or ‘Passion & Warfare’ sound that dated, and neither does this. What is also interesting is the way that Galysh brings in keyboards and piano, and also acoustic guitar. It isn’t all a shred fest, and he moves through multiple styles so that we shift from blues to commercial Seventies rock without a beat. There is a freshness to the re-recorded songs that only come from someone who has years of experience, yet he treats the songs with reverence and doesn’t attempt to move too far away from the originals, yet imbibes them with an additional element of class. As an independent release I’m not sure how much publicity this album will receive, but it certainly deserves strong recognition as this is yet another incredibly enjoyable release.
Rating: 7/10
