Beherit: Engram

Engram is the industry's accolade to Beherit's black metal involvements. It's deemed to be the worthy successor to Drawing Down the Moon.

If you were expecting a stellar release by the band because reviews everywhere are tagging superlatives to it, be mindful it's a black metal medium where 'fantastic' is readily someone else's 'regretable'. However, we need to keep Engram in context, in planet black metal, this is indeed a release worthy of praise. Marko Laiho & company took their time to draw inspiration from Burzum et al to give us this haunting collection. Please excuse the Gothenburg-esque guitar tone (think: Entombed/ Dismember)...

Hendrix desecration

This is the current uproar- Gibson is releasing a Jimi Hendrix guitar in the shape of a Strat...

... which is also offered in a packaged deal, a very affordable offering... attractive to beginners, maybe- provided they know this belated south paw guitarist who shook guitardom in his time, but that was when our fathers were hippies.

In his lifetime, Hendrix did play Gibsons- Flying Vs, SGs & occasionally, flipped over Les Pauls. It would be more respectable if the manufacturer takes pride in re-issuing the aforementioned guitars as opposed to the strat-alike production item depicted above.

You'd ask yourselves, why would Gibson, one of the industry's behemoth brand name, stoop this low- would you buy this guitar or invest in a Fender in the name of Hendrix adoration?

Smash the LTD

Would I smash my LTD? Not a chance...

Had the opportunity to play my SMASH S2 recently, but my LTD M-53 was lurking to make sure I return to something I am very familiar & comfortable with. Would one guitar replace the other? No- they are too different in terms of tone & feel.

Triple screamer!

Yes, it's a trio of Ibanez Tubescreamers working in tandem & doing me good! You might say it's sheer overkill & unnecessary but I value the final tone manifested by this line up. I hear a thick drive response unlike a solitary TS unit in action & with added (picking) sensitivity which only a metal-type distortion could give. The noise gate is necessary when employing more than a single drive/ distortion pedal to help curb the excessive hissings.

Stickers

I kinda miss my Ibanez RX which I've sold off quite some time ago, the body was riddled with stickers. Therefore, being the sentimental person I am (oh, really...?), I have assigned my Smash S2 to be my current stickers host, as seen above.

Double screamer

Yes... I enjoy drive/ distortion overdose; gives me that extra ease in picking, harmonics triggering & more importantly, less lethargy...

What you see above is a screamer overdose; the (Ibanez) TS7 kicking the Ts9 into action because individually, these pedals are wimpy, they don't possess the beef to give you that drive assault. I enjoy putting TS units together, there's this creamy output which isn't quite available from any individual TS pedal. The pairing also helps reduce midrange hump which is a major gripe with many TS users.