Brian Ailport - The Stink (song review) |The Stink, self-released, 2012| 
When an artist is passionate and inclined to be the best they can at what they do just for their own development, good things can happen thanks to hard work and determination. Brian Ailport has been a self-taught guitar player now for the past 15 years. He is left-handed, but admits he doesn't flip the strings. You can tell that his intense playing techniques and shredding melodies are tempered with dynamic flavor upon the first listen. If you are a guitar enthusiast looking for new talent to discover or collaborate with, remember his name because you won't go wrong with this musician.
"The Stink" is the ninth track on Brian Ailport's self-titled solo album. This track brings a lot of instrumental vitality combined with a variety of metal sub-genres from progressive through heavy metal and hard rock fused together. The song hijacks the listener from the very first riff as Brian's guitar becomes alive in his hands. In this case, the music is in no need of vocals as an Ibanez cries, yells, demands, stirs, swaggers, competes, cooperates and finally surrenders. Brian plays on both high and low octaves utilizing full scales across the length of the fretboard. This allows the sound of the guitar to vary around the rhythm which makes the song even more animated.
Although it's no secret that shredding and other soloing techniques may sound a bit too raw when unaccompanied by background music, Brian has taken care of this aspect as well. "The Stink" is a full sounding song where everything can be found in all the right places. The spectrum of compositional placement ranges from dense bass lines to a well programmed drum machine.
The mastering is also well done and underlines everything that is necessary.
Brian has posted a lot of videos on-line for those of you interested in learning how to play guitar. He also plays in an instrumental project called The Duo Bombers along with Mark Paschke on keyboards. Subscribe to Brian's social profiles to follow his live performances and try to catch a show, because watching him play in person may be quite an experience.
(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, March 26th, 2012. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens)
SoundCloud | YouTube | YouTube The Duo Bombers
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