When I was a young ‘un, guitar dork rags like Guitar and Guitar World and Guitar Player and Guitar Guitar used to have these full-page ads from Shrapnel Records, which weren’t just trying to push one single artist, but, rather, pretty much every album the label had released in the past however long. For x amount of dollars, you could get any three CDs of pure guitar dorkitude, from artists ranging from Paul Gilbert to Richie Kotzen to Jason Becker to some poor guys who probably ended up kinda going nowhere. But I distinctly remember saving up some allowance, cutting out one of the order forms, sending away for some of these records, and then sitting by mailbox for 6-8 years (shipping was mad slow in those days), waiting for my shit to arrive to so I could get my shred on.

I mention this because Jake Dreyer’s new, self-released EP, In the Shadows of Madness, reminds me very much of those old Shrapnel releases. And if, like me, you remember said albums with no small amount of fondness, you will probably enjoy the dude’s CD. I mean, this is just pure guitar ridiculousness. And  I mean that as a compliment. I wish I had a more articulate way to express how this EP sounds, but… nope, that’s it. GUITAR RIDICULOUSNESS.

As usual, though, there’s no reason to just take my word for it — you can stream the entire three-song EP here. (The stream includes links to places where you can purchase a digital copy of the release as well.) The cover should tip you off that the music is a mite cheesy, but it’s cheesy in the best possible way.

-AR