Inspired by various life incidents both positive and negative, Rene Benton has put his heart and soul into the irritatingly titled ‘Xpressions too!!! – Short Storeez’. Happily, the title of this album is about the only negative, for Rene Benton is a guitar player who deserves to be ranked alongside the likes of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, such is his remarkable instrumental prowess. Fans of virtuoso musicians will know, however, that fretboard mastery alone is no guarantee of a good album. Fortunately, no-one is more aware of this than Rene and he keeps songs short and to the point, meaning that this album, whilst still playing tribute to progressive rock, never once outstays its welcome, Rene keeping the pace varied and always interesting over the course of the album’s twelve tracks. Alongside Rene, there’s a quite remarkable cast (although regrettably the press release doesn’t mention which artist is involved in which track. However, across the album you’ll find performances from Rene’s musical friends, such as bassists Philip Bynoe (Steve Vai/Nuno Bettencourt/Mark Boals) and Kelly Conlon (Death/Monstrosity/Azure Emote), drummers Atma Anur (Greg Howe/Cacophony/Vinnie Moore/Jason Becker) & Paul Vowell (Radioactive Chickenheads/Green Jelly) and Funk guitar legend Charlie Singleton(Cameo) and a host of other incredible musicians.
Opening on a heavy note, Rene goes straight for the jugular via a crunchy riff that will delight all those who enjoyed Gus G’s recent stint with Ozzy Osbourne. A powerful opening number, the solos are blistering and deeply technical and yet, Rene manages to humanise the process, using his absolute mastery of the six-string to give the song melodic heft as well as heroic chops. Before you know it you’re into the bizarrely brutal ‘Eastmeetswest’, a track which opens with a phased Eastern-style opening before suddenly exploding into full blown guitar fury. Like Slayer jamming on the Beatles’ ‘within you without you’, it is a truly epic collision of styles and yet such is Rene’s confidence that it works perfectly. Giving reggae a thorough kicking is Rene’s next task, and this he does on the oddly jarring ‘Nation of struggle’, a track that heads off into pure avant-garde territory. It’s a difficult track to love with its syncopated rhythms and harmonised solos, and yet, given time, you start to realise the genius that lies at its mad heart, and a second visit allows the song to bed in. ‘Clone theory’ heads off into more traditionally heavy pastures with a frantic central riff and suitably skull-crushing percussion. It’s another hot-bed of frantic solos, and it’s enough to make most guitarists simply shake their head and take up the bass such is the ferocious pace of Rene’s delivery. The first side of the album (so soon?!) arrives in the form of the dizzying ‘part of me’ a dark-hearted, almost industrial-tinged piece that juxtaposes smooth, silky soloing with some dirty, grinding riffs.
The second half of the album kicks off with ‘this is life’, and kick off is exactly the right phrase. Keeping the pace set to ‘explosive’, Rene shows no sign of slowing things down as he rages on his fretboard with all the fury of a man possessed. Equally, ‘drone 3.3’ is delivered in a haze of swirling electronica. It’s typically bombastic and, the closest area of comparison for old school prog fans is surely the equally ludicrous world of Emerson Lake and Palmer, so utterly over the top is the whole performance. As if the previous track was not hyperactive enough, the monumental ‘Thingz happen’ sounds like Rene cloned an army of John Petrucci’s, pumped them full of steroids and dared them to top ‘train of thought’. The first real attempt to slow things down, even a touch, is the lush ‘Lyfe support’ which initially focuses on an extended bluesy solo before returning to the hammer-down approach found elsewhere. It builds to a furious climax with relentless double kick drumming and the guitar mimicking a life-support machine. With the sounds of emergency vehicles careering through the mix, it’s a song that manages to combine melody and an element of discomfort as the sounds of the emergency room are bought all too vividly to life. Fortunately any lingering sense of doubt is erased by the crunchy ‘green light go!!!!’. The awkwardly titled ‘V.U.S (veryuncomfortableshooz)’ is a jazzy nightmare with awkward time signatures pitted against Rene’s increasingly agitated soloing – the latter a cross between Tom Morello’s scattershot approach and John McLaughlin. The album ends with ‘Open air’, one last blast of carefully coordinated guitar work that, with its somewhat celebratory melody, feels like it should be scoring the conclusion of a violent action movie.
Virtuoso albums can all too easily leave the listener cold. There’s something cold and technical about a record that is entirely given over to showcasing one person’s skill and the more often than not, the results are self-indulgent at best and just plain boring at worst. The exceptions, of course, are those albums that draw a careful line between technical ability and melody. Rene Benton, by basing his compositions around the theme of life experience, and by keeping the material short and riff driven, has managed to avoid these pitfalls. Like Joe Satriani, Rene knows the value of a pounding riff and the music, whilst very much a showcase, maintains the listener’s interest throughout. Of course, there will always be those for whom an instrumental album is about as appealing as a night spent in a vat of dead fish, and this album will not change their minds. However, for those who appreciate dazzling playing, heavy riffs and short, sharp blasts of melodic metal, then Rene Benton is a must.
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