Let me start off by asking a question - how the hell have I not heard of Stéphan Forté before now? Seriously, this dude is amazing. And considering the caliber of special guests present on "The Shadows Compendium", Mr Forté has got the world at his feet right now.

Stéphan (if he doesn't mind my familiarity, ha) is a master shredder. I don't think there's any other way to describe it really. And during my listen through of this album I could hear so many different influences in the riffs and chords. Steve Vai came to mind most predominantly. He even puts his hand to Classical music in the beautifully understated final track which is a reimagining of Beethoven's"Moonlight Sonata". It would be easy to turn this simplistic and emotional song into a heavy, shredding nightmare, but Forté manages to stay true to the original spirit of it, adding only the bare minimum of fretwork. The whole album, to be fair, could just turn into a 'look how great I am at playing the guitar, guys!', but it doesn't. I never got the feeling that he was intentionally showing off; there's a lot of emotion in this album, and you can tell that he really does love playing the guitar.

I made allusions to the guest musicians, and if I mention names such as Glen Drover (MEGADETH) and Jeff Loomis (NEVERMORE), you'll understand why I was a bit excited when I read the track listing for the album. And while these great musicians add a lot with their solos, you don't find yourself waiting for them to come along, since Forté'sguitar playing is more than enough to keep you satisfied. Despite the fact that this is an instrumental album, the tracks are all different from each other, so that you don't get the feeling that you're listening to one 45 minute long self-indulgent shred. You have even got "Prophecies Of Loki XXI" which would feel completely at home on an epic film soundtrack.

"The Shadows Compendium" just sums up all that is great about the guitar as an instrument, what's it's capable of, and how it can make you feel. And the album really shows that Stéphan is an absolute master in his craft. But don't just take my word for it folks, you got to check him out.