It’s common for fans to get bored with albums with instrumental focus, where (usually) guitars take the place of vocals. There are some guitarists that really makes such experience a trauma due the need to use music to say ‘he-you’-see-how-I-am-fast-and-technical’ or something in this way; but others use their albums to express their ideas and inner feelings with excellent songs. On this second trench is the guitar professor and musician Affonso Jr. (known for his works with names as CONFESSORI, REVENGE, Roland Grapow and others) with his solo album “Dream Call”. It’s a guitar orientated Metal album, what means that it’s a Metal album, even with all the richness used on the guitars (one will easily see the eclectic appeal going from Metal and Rock into Fusion Jazz, Jazz Rock and Progressive Rock touches), it’s heavy and easy to be understood by Metal fans.

The main focus is on the guitars, but one will check that bass guitar, keyboards and drums are working on a high level of technique as well, but without making things hard to be assimilated by those that aren’t players of any musical instrument. As one can expect, to an instrumental album, things are defined and clean (especially because such set of musical genres used on the songs demands such thing). But the sonority bears the right amounts of distortion and aggressiveness (it’s a Rock album, after all). It’s really a fine result.

The mixtures and layers of the songs of “Dream Call” demand a time to enter fully onto the musical world it proposes to the hearers, but’s not difficult to understand what it stands for. Pay attention to songs as “The Calling/Guitar Point” (it’s introduced by Middle-East percussions before becoming a Heavy/Power Metal instrumental song with very good guitar riffs, arrangements and solos), “Shadows” (some Jazz Rock clean arrangements are heard, and an 80s feeling fills its melodies), “Alone” (a more melodic and deep moment with charming keyboards arrangements), “MMA” (again a strong scent of the 80s is present, with some shreds on the guitars, and a heavy work on bass guitar and drums, “Beck Again” (where a Jazz Rock technical appeal on the rhythms, and one of the most eclectic songs of the album), and the clean chords ending given by “A Blue Dream in the Dark, Pt. II”, and to be honest, the full album is amazing, because 90% of it is not based on guitar shredding. Maybe it’s a fruit of Affonso’s long time as guitar teacher, his title as Commander of Art and Culture of Maestro Carlos Gomes’ Order, and founder of Guitar Point School at Santo André (São Paulo).

As final words, it must be said that “Dream Call” was originally released back on 2021. But as good music endures as time passes by, take a bit on what Affonso Jr. offers to you:

https://onerpm.link/700981080091