Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz | Detailed or mini-review submissions: song, EP/album | Suggest an artist

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Punisher (Eric Broxton) - Shattered Reflections (song review) |War Zone, self-released, 2012|

Eric Broxton is a musician from South Carolina who performs under the moniker of Punisher. He is also a self taught guitar player who brings his own particular techniques. Most recently, Punisher released a song entitled "Shattered Reflections" that is intriguingly kept as a melodic rock tune with professional guitar solos that give the general impression of being inspired by Joe Satriani's virtuosity.

The primary guitar solo appears in the beginning of the song and repeats throughout the entire track. Instrumental choruses come next in the song structure as the guitar takes a direction that is quite characteristic for 80's rock and metal hits. Eric uses ESP guitars and bass as well as Sonar Producer software to create his interesting compositions. The arrangements that are utilized in “Shattered Reflections” are based on additional rhythm guitars and drum loops that match the entirety of the song very well.

To make this song a full sounding composition, a melodic, yet not intrusive keyboard track could be added to counterpoint the background in the verses. This technique always adds more flavor to any song and has been utilized in music by bands such as Toto, Dire Straits and Journey. This little improvement may help in mixing separate arrangements while providing underlying harmonies of synth parts that could fill in the connections between choruses and verses. This would emphasize the score and steal the listener's attention, especially in spots where the drums intensify the sound of the song. Moreover, Eric says he loves 80's-90's styles of hard rock music. So in fact, this aspect may be a good match.

"Shattered Reflections" brings with it memorable choruses and positive moods. Although the track was composed without aggressive dynamics and shredding on guitar, this is a positive aspect towards the atmosphere of the song. This short and soothing composition may be enjoyed by those listeners who are already stable in life and don't feel any burning need to reflect their frustrations through very heavy and noisy styles of music.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, May 24th, 2012. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens)

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