Joe Satriani - Crystal Planet

Joe Satriani – Elite Guitars
Stu Hamm – Elite Bass
Jeff Campitelli – Drums
Eric Caudieux – Keyboard
Eric Valentine – too many to list!

Joe “Satch” Satriani, (born on July 15, 1956, in Westbury, New York, USA), is the guitarist’s guitarist, with students who have included Metallica's Kirk Hammett, to Counting Crows' David Bryson, as well as jazz fusionist Charlie Hunter, and even the legendary Steve Vai. With that in mind it should come as no shock that there are no vocals on this album, but with Satriani’s mesmerising ability taking their place.

His 1986 self-released debut album, “Not of this Earth”, drop kicked the guitar world into shock at the thought that there were a whole raft of sounds a guitar could make at varying speeds. No longer was it enough to play fast with technical ability, to recite classical music at pace with “rock overtones” or to know whether it would be “really good to use mixolydian mode right now”. No, you had to know all of the above, and more, lots more.

One of the most understated comments I’ve seen about this album came in the form of:

Entertainment Weekly said – “breaks no new ground, relying instead on signature power ballads, big-hearted anthems, and crunching rockers. . . . Satriani is an old-fashioned guitar hero, an antic wailer, and a romantic at heart”

It’s very true that it’s not ground breaking, but it’s certainly a very solid album, and well worth adding to anybody’s music collection.

“Crystal Planet” is 15 tracks of technique, melody and guitar shredding at a high level. Personally speaking, I’d say if you were going to get any Satriani albums, this would be the first one, and goes some way in supporting the claim that “Satch” is one of the greatest modern guitarists of our time.

The album offers a huge variance in moods (and because of this it’s challenging to pin a description down to one word), from the upbeat “Up in the Sky”, past one of the highlights of the CD, “Raspberry Jam Delta V” (complete with great new ideas and tone), through to a beautiful reflective lullaby in the form of Z Z’s song. Along this journey through a varied musical landscape you’ll come across the Grammy nominated “Train of Angels” and other musical gems such as "With Jupiter And Mind". The album is never too self indulgent like so many other guitarists with the “hey lets show the world how fast I can play” mentality, it never gets “old”, is consistently “Satch”, and is always accessible with a minimalistic rock base carrying it along.