CoC : The Great Kat - Guitar Goddess : Review

The Great Kat - _Guitar Goddess_
(1997, 1997)
by: Brian Meloon (6 out of 10)

The Great Kat's latest offering is a 4 song EP, clocking in at a whopping 8 minutes. It features two classical covers (Rossini's "Barber of Seville" and Sarasate's "Gypsy Violin Waltz: Zigeunerweisen"), and two original songs ("Feast of the Dead" and "Dominatrix"). The style is essentially the same as her previous offerings: fast, short, thrashy songs with lots of fast neoclassically inspired guitar work, and screamed and growled vocals. As with her previous release (_Digital Beethoven on Cyberspeed_ (see CoC #6)), she seems to be trying to be taken more seriously, as the music (and packaging) avoids a lot of the cheesy imagery from _Beethoven on Speed_. She's even incorporated some new influences (such as the congas at the intro and outro of "Feast of the Dead"). By far my favorite part of the CD is her version of Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen", in which she elaborates on the guitar/violin interaction that she has played around with in the past (e.g. "Paganini's Caprice #9" from _DBOC_). The dueling guitar/violin approach works well, and offers a novel sound. Hopefully, she'll continue to explore this fertile territory with her future releases. The production isn't great; it's rawer than her previous offerings and sounds a little distorted as well (probably due to a smaller recording budget). Overall, this is a nice release for fans of neoclassical guitar spank-off, but it's way too short.

(article published 16/3/1997)

CHATS
1/17/1996	B Meloon	The Great Kat: Kilobytes, Komputers, and Kraziness

ALBUMS
1/16/1999	B Meloon	5	The Great Kat - Bloody Vivaldi