After a short spell with his second band (Arch Stanton) had prematurely ended due to poor management, Edward Box decided to pursue a solo career. Plectrumhead is his first solo album. The CD is of course completely instrumental and Joe Satriani’s influence (mainly his older work such as “Surfing With The Alien”) is strongly present.

The production of the album is excellent, as well as Edward’s guitar work. However, the resemblance with Satriani is too obvious and therefore slightly disturbing. Songs like “Blue Skies Above”, “130R” and “Stratosphere” have the name Satriani written all over them.

Granted, Edward’s music is slightly more metal-orientated, but the melodies are very similar to Satriani’s. The aforementioned track “130R” sounds exactly like “Surfing With The Alien” and can only be called a variation of this classic.

Plectrumhead is a decent enough album that might lack originality, but contains plenty of excellent melodies and strong song structures. Edward has managed to keep the songs compact and has kept the experimentation level to a minimum (there’s the freaky “frequencies” but that’s about it), making this album a very pleasant listening experience.