George Bellas is one busy guy. In the last couple of years he recorded and released several records with bands like UFO, Moggway and Magellan. He also managed to release a few solo albums. Venomous Fingers is his latest release, and his first one on Lion Music.

Somehow I never seem to appreciate these kinds of solo efforts. Despite the fine guitar playing, these albums all lack depth and vision. Like usual, you have the dominant instrument, in this case the guitar, supported by other instruments. You can compare this to the average support acts. There are some similarities between the support and the main act, but the support act will never get close to the quality of the main act.

The same goes for the supporting and additional instruments, they never come even close to the venomous guitar playing.

I have no doubt that George Bellas is a fine guitarist. The problem is that he isn’t interested in the quality of the songs; he is only interested in displaying his skills on guitar. In the past he developed music education software and that is probably what this album reminds me of. Of course there are some nice compositions on this album and the die hard guitar fan might enjoy listening to it, but I’m sure the laser of my cd-player will never see Venomous Fingers again.