Project Steiger

Project Steiger - Defiance - 2003 - Project Steiger

Labeled as "Instra-Metal Guitar", this CD from virtuoso guitarist Ken Steiger totally lives up to the bill. Supported by a great cast of musicians, including Planet X'ers Derek Sherinian and Virgil Donati, plus bassist Tony Franklin, as well as a little help from guitarist Gary Hoey and keyboard player Michael T. Ross, this album shreds from start to finish, but also contains some memorable melodies amidst the complex metal thunder. The first thing I noticed is that Steiger is by no means a member of the neo-classical, Yngwie-clone camp, which is a good thing. That style seems to encompass 90% of the instrumental guitar albums these days, but Steiger falls more into the James Murphy, Chris Poland school, mixing tons of heavy rhythms with speedy & melodic lead lines dripping with serious tone. "Run 4 Cover" is a great example of his style, as it starts off as a melodic and passionate ballad before blasting into a rocking metal anthem, complete with bombastic rhythms, whammy bar trills, and furious right hand tapping. Sherinian lets Steiger do most of the soloing on the album, as he settles in more with the rhythms and harmony lines with his keyboards. Donati however is like a man possessed-listen to his furious onslaught during the manic "Vertical Integration (V.I.)", a rampaging metal machine fueled by Steiger's heavy licks and Donati's pounding drum work. There's also some real catchy stuff here too, such as the alluring "Child of the Storm", where Steiger out-does Joe Satriani, or the mosh pit stomp rendition of Santana's "Persuasion", where Steiger duels with Gary Hoey. While Steiger has a completely different touring band, it's great hearing him with these world class musicians on Defiance. To add even more credibility, the CD was co-produced by Sherinian, and engineered by former Ozzy bandmate Phil Soussan and ex-Guns N Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. There's a new player in town folks, and his name is Ken Steiger! Reviewed by & © Pete Pardo, Added: March 31st 2004, Score: **** © 2004 Sea Of Tranquility http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=1284

"By the second listen I was thinking that this (DEFIANCE) could be the best rock/shred CD I've experienced. By the third listen I was convinced this is the quintessential rock/shred CD, bar none." - TheGuitarists.com

"The songs are a wet dream for fans of the instrumental cd's Mike Varney released in the eighties, on his own Shrapnel label. Ken Steiger is a shredder similar to Jason Becker, Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen, etc." - Lords Of Metal

"If you love instrumental CDs that actually possess dignity, then you WANT this disc." - Keeper Magazine - Issue #11

"What Steiger has is a very progressive approach to shred composition, sort of a Satriani style of music that stays fast, while adding deeper levels of changes and progressions." - Proggnosis

"...fuel-injected fretwork." - Music Connection Magazine

"...the music is encompassing and nearly overwhelming." - Music Connection

We had a great surprise when we received this great album from USA. A great guitar-oriented album by the guitarist Ken Steiger. Graduated with honor in 1992, Ken already has taken many years fighting in what refers to the soloist guitar way as people like Tony Macalpine, Vinnie Moore, Richie Kotzen etc.. Defiance is mainly an instrumental album dedicated mainly to the guitar world. We can find stellar collaborations in this album as Virgil Donati (drums) nowadays considered as one the best drummers in the world, Tony Franklin (bass guitar) who all will know for his extensive career as a musician & of course Mr Derek Sherinian (keyboards) known by everybody (Dream Theater, Kiss, Alice Cooper..) We can´t say much more about the collaborations in this album becauseKen Steiger takes all the protagonism eclipsing the other ones with his guitar riffs & licks. We put the album in the CD player and begin the listening session of this great album: "Prince of souls" is the name of the first track and listening it, the musical atmosphere embraces us from the beginning during the whole CD. A lot of time have passed since we receive the last solo album by a guitarist like him. Pure 80s style. A very personal way of playing guitar that was already forgotten. "Rock it" and "Run for Cover" reminds us to great albums like “Perpetual Burn” of the amazing Jason Becker and others like him. Some aggressive riffs and a powerful heavy rhythmic base. A lot of melody and of course a big dose of speed metal. Without rest we find "Vertical Integration" and "Child of the storm". Two good references that maybe remember us a bit to Satriani´s songs in early career. In my opinion Ken Steiger is better than Satriani… faster and heavier. "Neutron Flux" is a calmer song. In that one he show us his melodic and more sensitive side but without leaving the dark atmospheres that prevail during the whole album. Maybe sometimes this song could remember to Planet X (it is obvious because there are two members of the band in this album). "Edge of forever" take us in route to other two songs of pure instrumental metal called "KT Boundary event" and "Persuasion" that continues in the same wave than the previous ones. "Anti-gone" it is practically the most progressive song of the album. In this one Virgil Donati sow us a good sample of his handling drums. A song a la Pantera with hard riffs and heavy all around. To conclude the album we listen to "Here come the heroes" undoubtedly the most melodic and with some touches a la Steve Vai. In short: we can say that this is a great guitar solo album. Pure heavy American style of the latest 80s. I will highlight his virtuosity, his catching melodies and his purified technique. A real great musician of the old school of pure heavy metal. On the other hand we don't appreciate many progressive elements in his music and the sound maybe could be better. Apart from this we can say that “Defiance” is an amazing album. If you are guitarist you have to buy this album. A great CD that reminds us to styles that were almost forgotten. Congratulations! © Germán Villén - May 2004 © 2000-2011 progVisions - All rights reserved. http://www.progvisions.com/reviews_uk/ps_def_uk.htm

Ken Steiger described “Defiance” as “Instra-metal” and “Combing all elements of Metal and Rock and applying them into an instrumental format that can be appreciated by all cultures”. He also said, “A real exciting album. I got to work with the world’s finest musicians. When Derek Sherinian (Ex-Dream Theater, Malmsteen) approached me to help me co-produce the album “DEFIANCE”. I was excited. Then he helped me hire Virgil Donati (Steve Vai, Planet X) and Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder) to do their parts it was all coming together. We ended up engineering the Drums at Gilby Clarke’s house, and recording a lot of Tony’s bass lines there. Tom Fletcher and Albert Law helped me engineer the rest of the album over at Derek Sherinian’s home in the Hollywood hills. Pretty cool. Sharon Farias and Phil Soussan helped in the production and mixing as well”. Some critics have labelled this album as “guitar wankery”. Well if you want some “piano wankery”, listen to Chopin. This is a great instrumental guitar orientated progressive hard rock/metal album [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 111 Mb]

TRACKS

1. Prince of Souls 4:35
2. Rock-It 4:19
3. Run 4 Cover 4:58
4. Vertical Integration (V.I.) 3:54
5. Child of the Storm 5:03
6. Neutron Flux 6:25
7. Edge of Forever 00.46
8. KT Boundary Event 2:51
9. Persuasion 6:13
10. Anti-Gone 4:38
11. Here Come the Heroes 4:03

All tracks composed by Ken Steiger except “Persuasion” by Gregg Rolie & Carlos Santana

MUSICIANS

Ken Steiger - Guitar
Gary Hoey - Lead guitar exchange with Ken Steiger on "Persuasion"
Tony Franklin - Fretless Bass
Yolen Farias - Bass on “Persuasion” and “Vertical Integration”
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards
Michael T. Ross - Keyboards on “Edge of Forever
Virgil Donati - Drums
Gene McEwen - Drums on “Persuasion” and “Vertical Integration”

ABOUT KEN STEIGER

Ken picked up the guitar in 1980's, and was immediately influenced by the heavy music adorning the airwaves at the time. Bands like Sabbath and OZZY, Priest and Iron Maiden AC/DC and KISS, had a profound influence and his future playing style. Born in California, but raised in Washington state Ken immersed himself in guitar and music. After many years of study and wood shedding, Ken found himself immersed in the Neo-Classical guitar stylings of Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine and Randy Rhoads. This eventually lead him into the virtuoso playing of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen. After years of self-teaching through books and magazines, Ken enrolled in a community college where he rounded out his studies on Theory, Rhythm and Ear training and reading. Ken had his sights set on the famous G.I.T. (Musicians Institute) in Hollywood California. After saving his pennies for a few years arrived in Hollywood, CA in 1991, enrolled in G.I.T. and graduated with honors in 1992. In 1997 Ken was hired to teach at M.I. (Musicians Institute) where he now teaches the METAL - Live Playing Workshop (LPW) and recently wrote the cirriculum for the new METAL GUITAR ELECTIVE, where students get college credits learning how to play bands like SLAYER, PANTERA, OZZY, METALLICA, MEGADETH, etc. In 2000 Ken was hired by EMI Publishing to be the "Guitar Coach" for stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Olyphant and Dominic West in the Warner Bros. movie "ROCK STAR", released in September 2001. Throughout all this time Ken was creating in his home studio many un-released demos that he coined Instra-METAL (Instrumental/Metal) music. Heavy, fast, hard-hitting over-the-top shred guitar music for those who really wanted to ROCK!! Which led him to the introduction to Derek Sherinian, a famous Keyboardist who has worked with some amazing bands, including Dream Theater, KISS, Alice Cooper, Yngwie Malmsteen, Billy Idol, etc. Derek had approached Ken about producing an album for him, offering top-notch players to perform on the album with him. This led to Ken's latest release "PROJECT STEIGER - DEFIANCE", which as you can see, has some amazing players on it. This album was released in the Summer of 2003. In the mean time Ken Steiger has also been a contributing writer for "GUITAR PLAYER" magazine. Doing columns on the styles of Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen. Ken is currently playing shows in the Southern California area with his band "PROJECT STEIGER" providing an intense show of guitar virtuosity to the public. Recently opening for National acts such as: George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), Pat Travers, Dick Dale, Rob Balducci (Favored Nations Artist). He also teaches for the National Guitar Workshop in Los Angeles. (Rock Summit 2004 / 2005 /2006) during the summers. Be sure to check out all the latest information on STEIGER at WWW.PROJECTSTEIGER.COM WWW.MYSPACE.COM/PROJECTSTEIGER or email to: STEIGER@ROCKGUITAR.NET Proud D'Addario Rock Artist Since 1991. © 2008 D'Addario & Co. All Rights Reserved http://www.daddario.com/DaddarioArtistDetails.Page?ActiveID=3777&ArtistId=40052&sid=0e534f24-dbe3-423a-a80a-5494be5c25d0