Brandon Paul - Departure
https://www.facebook.com/guitaristbrandonpaul/

Rating: A

Unless they are the first six Mike Oldfield albums, I am not a big fan of instrumental albums. Where the majority of Oldfield's early albums were approached as long form compositional works, most instrumental albums are by guitar shred maestros who are too full of themselves to collaborate with someone that understands melody and song structure. In most-but not all-cases they are just riffs drowned out by relentless pyrotechnics.

With this, perhaps unfair, bias in place, I set about to listen to guitarist Brandon Paul's first full-length solo instrumental album Departure. Brandon has been a major fixture in the local Los Angeles heavy rock scene for years, laying down blistering leads as a session guitarist, playing gigs with former Toto singer Bobby Kimball and routinely setting fire to the Legendary Whiskey A-Go-Go during their popular Wednesday night Jams. Brandon recently left the band Stonebreed after putting on a hard rock guitar clinic on their stunning studio album Heart Of Stone.

I had a chance to listen to Departure and have a conversation with Brandon about the album. I was fully prepared to tell him it wasn't my cup of tea because it's...well...you know...an instrumental album but when I pressed play I didn't hear what I was expecting. On the opening track "Black Stallion" I heard piano and acoustic guitar accompanied by a lovely electric guitar motif and I soon realized this album was something different. This isn't an instrumental album so much as it is an album of songs without words.

As Brandon put it to me during our conversation:

"My approach to this project was to stick to a straight song structure. The more you listen the more you can discern the verses from the chorus and the bridge. Even the guitar solos are composed to serve the song. I think I got tired of just blasting it out all the time. I've built a reputation over the years of playing on other people's records and gigs as well as with Stonebreed, as someone who brings the heavy. I wanted this record to show another side of my abilities."

On Departure Brandon succeeds admirably with his goal. Each song puts melody first - the verse, chorus and bridge are established, with Brandon's guitar serving as the singer. As a listener I am drawn so deeply into the song that, by the time Brandon decides to let his impossibly fleet fingers do their thing, I don't even realize my face is a puddle on the floor by the song’s end.

"Instrumental albums are a hard sell from the get go, and I love Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, but I want this record to appeal to everyone, not just metal fans, I wanted piano and acoustic guitar and melody. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of shredding on here, it all serves the song. Each song is inspired by a story from my life so this music comes from a place deep inside of me."

Brandon Paul's Departure is available to download, stream or as a CD at the links below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7jUpBpo-c&t=34s
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/departure/1448269975?ign-mpt=uo%3D2
https://open.spotify.com/album/2nmUviKO5Ox8csAHwE8rwy

Tracklist:
Black Stallion
You’re Not Alone
Remembrance
Day Of The Wanderer
Balanc
eColors Of The Spirit
Finding PeaceThe Final Chapter

By Eric Sandberg