Alex Skolnick Trio - Live Unbound album review

As well as his main gig as guitarist of Testament, Alex Skolnick is also a former member of Savatage and, until recently, a touring player with prog-meets-Broadway behemoth Trans-Siberian Orchestra. However, he also has a passion for jazz rock that allows him to express his gifts in an entirely different way. An indescribably skilled group of musicians, AST have made four studio albums. After attaining cult status by stripping down and rebuilding classics from Ozzy Osbourne, Kiss, Sabbath and Judas Priest, each album has phased out the covers to further the group’s own identity. Featuring just seven instrumentals but with a playing time of around an hour, Live Unbound features a pair of brand new tracks, some latterday originals and radical re-workings of Aerosmith’s Dream On and Still Loving You by the Scorpions. The musicianship levels are off the scale, naturally, although the sheer unrelenting noodling may well out-tax all but the most patient and adventurous listeners.