Band:	Victor Gann
Album:	The Devil's Been Busy
Style:	Instrumental hard rock
Release date:	October 2008

01. The Devil's Been Busy
02. For Love
03. A.R.O.
04. Beyond The Sun
05. Shannon And Victoria
06. 06/06/44
07. A Walk With God
08. Black Gold
09. Out Past Midnight
10. Lullaby For Victoria

Victor Gann is a Texan (Dallas) guitar player and teacher who graduated from the G.I.T. (Guitar Institute of Technology). He has played with a lot of different bands and has now independently released his second instrumental album "The Devil's Been Busy". The drumming comes from Bruce Ryan and the bass lines are provided by Thomas Hopper, the rhythm guitar is handled by Nik Woods, all three of them doing a very good job.

Gann lists Joe Satriani and Angus Young as his two biggest influences so perhaps you can imagine what he delivers with this release. Very technical, upbeat instrumental hard rock; yet the songs are still pretty straight-forward and I can assure you that you won't get lost in an incoherent jumble of solos aimlessly stitched together, as in some other guitar albums. All his riffs and solos sound pretty cool and he never lets things get messy on this release. Unfortunately we don't get a lot of variation on this CD, but it's ok because it clocks in at rather short 41 minutes.

There's one thought that has been following me since the first time I heard this CD though; this could have been so awesome if it only had vocals. Some instrumental are a lot better without vocals - or rather they wouldn't work with vocals - but in this case it's different. As opposed to most instrumental albums I've heard the tracks on "The Devil's Been Busy" are all very straightforward and they're all pretty strong too. If only there would be a vocalist with a strong, oldschoolish heavy metal voice accompanying the riffs this album would probably have been at least an 8.5 in my book. But alas, even though his song structures and melodies would have been perfect for it, Victor decided to take a different road with his music.

Still; if you're looking for some good instrumental hard rock/heavy metal that is technical and easily accessible at the same time you don't have to look any further because despite the lack of vocals Victor Gann is a real powerhouse in this area.