Alex Skolnick Trio - "Transformation"

Alex Skolnick made his name as a six-string guitar slinger in the Bay Area thrash legends Testament. Apparently fed up with metal, he quit the band, went to music school, and hooked up with a couple of jazzers (Nathan Peck on double bass and Matt Zebroski on drums), with the idea of doing exploratory fusion-jazz, using the heavy metal songbook for standards (and inspiration) and not the "regular" (or, it could be argued, "over-covered") classic jazz songbook. This, their second album, features radically reworked versions of Judas Priest, Pink Floyd, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, and Ronnie James Dio, evenly balanced with some original compositions. And while this album is very well played, with excellent performances from all involved (especially Zebroski's work on "IMV/The Trooper" and Skolnick's guitar on "Money"), the album as a whole comes off much like works by the Bad Plus, that is, a well-executed gimmick. That may turn some listeners off, but how many dyed-in-the-wool metal fans are going to tolerate even one minute of what Spinal Tap termed a "jazz odyssey"? And how many dyed-in-the-wool jazz fans are going to seek out the original version of Priest's "Electric Eye" to do a comparison with the version here? Probably not too many. If you're somehow either one of these two extremes, this album will probably work for you, both in the background and on the headphones.

3.5 stars