Adrian Weiss
Big Time

A force at work moving a bit away from what he usually does, Adrian Weiss is the guitarist of a few bands and has been working with this album for quite a while. It has been recorded over a few years now and was finished and released last year, for some reason we did not receive then but Adrian was kind enough to send us this album a month or so ago so I guess I did review thanks to not really looking at when it was released. But maybe I wouldn’t regret it as the cover has the looks of a rather interesting album, it is an instrumental rock album on which Adrian has the help from several well-known rock instrumentalists. With good signs at first glance, this definitely has potential but of course potential and final result often differ quite a bit with a first album.

It is an instrumental rock album we are dealing with here, it is well produced with a good sound, well performed without moving down masturbation alley on which so many rock guitarists doing instrumental albums love to do. Fortunately Adrian does not, it is quite different from what he does with Forces at Work with its rather straight melodic rock music that touches on the progressive rock at times but generally doesn’t. It is varied and well told I would say and for once listening to an instrumental I don’t feel annoyed by some musician wanting to show of some fingering skills. This album has eleven tracks and it plays for around 46 minutes, melodic minutes.

And it is good, as I said about annoyances and all of that thing. The tracks are all of a high quality standard, all of them. The songs feel logical and fluent in style, it does not stop and go like a Romain Grosjean in japanese Formula 1 races which is usually the case with instrumental rock. It feels like Adrian has focused more on the songs than on showcasing his own skills fingering a guitar which tend to be the the case in general instrumental rock music. So I have now established that this album is better than most instrumental albums I have heard and actually one of very few that I like, and I generally don’t like instrumental rock music.

The best song is the first one just like the first cut is usually the deepest, it is called Summer Drive. Personally though I think winter drives are better when it is dark outside and warm and comfy in the car driving around at around 100 km/h listening to loudly played good music. Maybe a great song called Winter Drive can be on the next album but the opening Summer Drive is as I said a great opening song that sets a good tone for the album which is being kept reasonably well throughout the entire album. In a way it is a bit of a shame that no following track is as good as the opener, but those tracks are still very good tracks and I have enjoyed listening for this album which I think will appeal to fans of instrumental music but also to many other fans of good music.

So make sure to have a look at Adrian’s Big Time because it is an interesting album and possibly the best instrumental rock album of 2012 and one instrumental album that isn’t a showcase of someone with delusions of grandeur. Well worth looking at.