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David Valdes - Paradise Lost
David Valdes is a Spanish guitarist, who has been playing his instrument for quite a while. After playing in a Spanish death metal band called Witch, David discovered classical influenced guitar music. Practicing his ass off resulted into some great guitar skills, and "Paradise Lost" is the man's first solo outing. I do have to say that Mr Valdes should get someone to write a new biography for him; the use of english was so bad that it was borderlining on funny. Valdes' music is pretty typical instrumental guitarmusic, as you might know it from guys like Malmsteen and Jason Becker. If you don't care for relentless shredding and classical riffing, you'd better stay away from this. People who do like it can read on!

The cd I received had 6 tracks of the 11 that are on the album. Opener "Paradise Lost" pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the cd, the Malmsteen and Classical influences are very appearent. Personally I think the chord progressions are a bit to 'typical' but the main theme is pretty nice. One thing that Valdes seems to know that he is a rock/metal guitarist, and I was happy that the song "Legend" is based on a great, heavy riff. A lot of guitarists seem to dwell into never-ending technical stuff but this song just rocks. Same goes for the song "Fallen Angel". The song starts with a neat doublebass intro with some sweep-picking, and the main guitarriff actually reminded me a bit of Megadeth...probably a Marty Friedman influence. Again, nice main theme. The song "Lord of Fire" didn't really do much for me, it seemed to drown a bit into its own shredding. The last song on the disc, "Eternal Dream" is one of the stronger tracks. Personally I prefer it if some of the shredding is kept to a minimum, and this songs has some good melodic leads.

The disc is produced by David himself, and it sounds pretty great actually! The drums seem to be programmed, but they're well done. The overall soundquality is very clear, and I really like the guitar tones that David got out. Good job for a self-made effort!

Like I said, this kind music is meant for people who are enthusiastic about technical guitar stuff. Personally I do have to say that I prefer these 6 songs over the latest Malmsteen record; Valdes has a good feel for structuring and catchy melodic leads, and still throws the occasional metal riff around. If I had my way I would get rid of some of the typical orchestra-from-a-keyboard backings and put some more metal in it. I hope that Valdes finds a good prog or heavy metal band to play with so that his (clearly awesome) talents are more accesible to the public.
David Valdes - Paradise Lost
73/1001Details Heavencross Records
Released on Sunday Oct 2nd, 2005
Guitar Instrumental

Writer @Carn on Sunday Oct 2nd, 2005

Tags: #David Valdes
Tracklisting 01-Paradise Lost
02-Legend
03-An Old History
04-Time Up!
05-Fallen Angel
06-My Enchanted Forest
07-The Lord Of Fire
08-BWV 1046 Adagio
09-Hidden Minds
10-Eternal Dream
11-Cacophony
Line up David Valdes - Guitars, programming