Behold, a true challenge. The last guitar wizard albums I heard must have been Malmsteen’s Rising Force stuff back in the eighties. That’s a while back, so when Rick Renstrom’s “Until The Bitter End” dropped in the mail I seriously had to sit back for this one. What the hell, this is old fashioned shredder material. Now, we Rockezine writers may not get paid for what we do, we are however professionals. So here we go, unbiased (yeah right).

Expect every cliché you might expect. Ridiculously fast lead work (thank you Yngwie), classical guitar adaptations, epic keyboard lines, high squeals (guest vocalists Matt Sinner, Rob Rock and Wade Black), a crystal clear production and tight drumming (guest drummer Richard Christy).

Exactly, the smart thing to do, hire great guest musicians. Let them work around your standard song structures and ideas and all might just turn out well.

Not really. Rick’s talented smooth guitar work is fine, almost flawless, technically on a high level but it’s as rehashed as it can get. And that’s my biggest problem with “Until The Bitter End”. Where’s the magic? Until The Bitter End is a treat for all the die hard shredder, neo-classical fans, fun for people like me who haven’t heard stuff like this for over 15 years and a nightmare for all those who like their metal/guitar work down tuned and up to date. But to all you Malmsteen adapts “Until The Bitter End” might just do the trick.