We now come to solo album number three from the legendary American guitarist Reb Beach more commonly known as the guitarist with US rock band Winger and, since 2002, one of the guitarists in Whitesnake as well as for his work with Dokken and the Black Swan project. This is a guitarist who can most definitely play the rock guitar!
View From The Inside has been a long time coming as his last solo opus, Masquerade, came out as long ago as 2001 and those fans waiting for their dose of Reb Beach guitar heroics have certainly grown a lot older whilst waiting. Thankfully, his skills have not diminished one iota and his fretwork is as clean, clear and fast as it has ever been.
The ten tracks that make up the album are all instrumental so what you have here is 42-minutes of technical guitar ecstasy that is very much in the same area as that supplied by those other technical geniuses, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, and shows a guitarist pushing the guitar as far as it can go. Having said that, this is not an exercise for Beach to show how fast he can play or to exhibit self-indulgence as there is a great deal of melody here as Beach flirts with metal as well as jazz-rock and everything is played with a pleasing groove and a great sense of timing. I’m not normally over keen on excessive instrumental rock albums but the jazz vibe that Beach has infused into the music gives it another dimension and this means repeated plays are the requisite for this truly wonderful melodic rock masterpiece. The music is rich and diverse and there is always something different to hear with each play which shows just what a great musician Reb Beach is as well as a stunning guitarist. The musicians chosen to help are all first class and all well known in their own right and are working with him rather than for him and that makes a great difference to the fluidity of the material.
Reb Beach has produced a stunning album in View From The Inside which, to be truthful, we all knew he was going to do anyway, one to savour and delight in.
A View From The Inside track listing
- 1 Black Magic (3:15)
- Little Robots (3:31)
- Aurora Borealis (4:46)
- Infinito 1122 (3:30)
- Attack Of The Massive (6:13)
- The Way Home (4:46)
- Whiplash (3:22)
- Hawkdance (4:05)
- Cutting Loose (3:29)
- Sea Of Tranquility (5:13)
Reb Beach: All guitars, bass on 4, 9, keyboards on 4, 6, 11, strings on 10; David Throckmorton: Drums all tracks except 6; Robert Langley: Drums track 6; Michele Luppi: Piano on 3, 10; Phillip Bynoe: Bass 1, 2, 3, 8, 10; John Hall: Bass 5, 6, 7 & Paul Brown: Keyboards 1, 2, 5, 7
