Usually, when a guitar virtuoso releases a solo album full of instrumental tracks it draws the interest of those who actually are into playing the six-string and want to listen to some skillful and tricky riffs and arpeggios. Although I play the guitar (at least I try to) I don't belong to the aforementioned group and most of the times I find these type o album a little bit boring. These thoughts surfaced my mind as soon as The Ultimate Devotion has fell upon my hands for reviewing purposes. Ok, I thought I know Marc Rizzo from Max Cavalera's SOULFLY albums and especially their live performances. So, after a long wait Marc's second solo album made its way to my CD player...
The first sounds that came from the speakers belonged to classic guitar; Marc plays some flamenco tunes that sound pretty cool even though there is no metal in them. After almost 1 minute Skankin To The Shred turns into a Thrash shredder with fast drumming and a really heavy and raw sound! After this audio shock I remembered an old interview where Marc explained the term Phlamencore as the combination of flamenco and 80s thrash! Actually this is exactly what The Ultimate Devotion contains. In Sinceramente and Ascension the two styles are battling there way out and the final winner is definitely the winner. The exotic sound gets more enriched by the use of foreign to non-metal percussion like congos that introduce a tribal atmosphere. The melodic moments belong to tracks like Angelina's Song,  Mamasita or Trentinara that brought to my mind the clean guitar break in QUEEN's epic song Innuendo. All Or Nothing and Lived And Learned are the only songs in the album that feature vocals; the first has strong Crossover foundations in the style of D.R.I. while the second bear a most enjoyable old school SUICIDAL TENDENCIES atmosphere.
This album is something really special that brings some new ideas through inspired experimentation. Marc plays the guitar with his heart and blows some steam through the kick ass shredding for our pleasure. You can check out some tracks in his personal MySpace page by clicking here.
P.S.: Since this is not a regular Metal release I will not rate it!