The title of this compilation album might cause some raised eyebrows, but the subtitle ‘A Fusion Guitar Tribute’ won’t leave much room for imagination. Visions Of An Inner Mounting Apocalypse features some of the greatest names in progressive jazz / fusion guitar, each paying tribute to Mr fusion himself John Mclaughlin. Each of these musicians among whom Steve Lukather, Mike Stern, Steve Morse and Greg Howe, are accompanied by a solid band consisting of Jeff Richman, Kai Eckhardt, Mitchel Forman and Jeff Richman, who was also responsible for the arrangements and the production.

To be honest (as I always try to be) I’m not overly impressed by this release. This time it hasn’t much to do with the fact that I’m not a major fan of tribute albums and it sure isn’t because I don’t like guitars, but this instrument is way too dominant in the mix, that is too dominant for my liking. I’m sure that a lot of the fusion fans among us will disagree, pointing out to me that this is a guitar tribute, but in my opinion this shouldn’t go at the expense of the actual tracks. I’d have to recommend this album to fusion guitarists only.