Cover art by Trevor Niemann
Style: Progressive rock, progressive metal, shred (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: The Aristocrats, Steve Vai, Buckethead, Sons of Apollo
Country: New Jersey, United States
Release date: 24 January 2025
Though his latest record may be entitled “Returns!”, it’s hard to say that fretless guitar wizard Ron “Bumblefoot1” Thal has really gone anywhere. Best known for his stint as lead guitarist for Guns n’ Roses during their Chinese Democracy release and subsequent tour, Bumblefoot has had quite the prolific career before and after, releasing numerous solo albums, being one of the better parts of prog supergroups Sons of Apollo and Whom Gods Destroy2, and even serving a brief stint as the frontman for Asia of all bands. But, of course, Thal means the title as a reference to his return to releasing instrumental shred music, which he has largely stayed away from since his early Shrapnel Records days in the ’90s. While much of that subgenre is often maligned for being a series of pointless exercises in onanism that spurt out a million notes without a single one sticking in the listener’s brain, Thal has a unique advantage in coming back to it thirty years older and wiser, carrying decades’ worth of experience crafting actual songs around his guitar wizardry in a variety of genres. But can he utilize that growth in musicality to craft something vibrant and interesting, or is this new offering simply a return to old habits?
The answer, much like the music itself, is complicated. True, eight-minute opener “Simon in Space” doesn’t put its best foot forward, with its abrupt in medias res opening salvo of chaotic, directionless odd meter djent riffs backed by synths that can only be described as “flatulent”. After a bit, though, it opens up into something more spacious and restrained, with two separate melodic refrains and a generally sparser backdrop that gives his frankly extraterrestrial flights of sweeping and tapping fancy room to breathe. And, for the most part, this is a pattern that holds throughout the rest of the album. Though there’s certainly enough impossibly intricate technique on offer here to send your average guitar nerd into reflexive stank-face mode, tracks like “Planetary Lockdown”, “The Thread”, and especially the soaringly tuneful “Cintaku” balance their virtuosity with a clear focus on melodic songwriting and a refreshingly tasteful approach to phrasing that makes even their most fleet-fretted passages go down smooth. Of course, not every creative decision lands—”Monstruoso” features the unwelcome return of the farty djent with an additional dubstep twist—but on the whole, this is some top-shelf shred that even the uninitiated can enjoy.
Still, Bumblefoot is clearly aware of how samey a set of solely speedy shredding can become, no matter how tastefully done, so there’s an obvious effort to spice things up by giving each song its own unique identity. One of the ways Thal keeps things interesting is by inviting a series of guest musicians, including some serious heavyweights like Steve Vai, Guthrie Govan, and even renowned astrophysicist Brian May. While all three are welcome features, Govan definitely has the most substantial presence on his track, and listening to him trading mind-bending solos back and forth with Thal on “Anveshana” is a treat—just two incredibly skilled musicians throwing ideas at each other and clearly having a blast doing so.
Beyond guest features, though, there’s also the inclusion of wildly diverse sound palettes from a variety of genres, with Thal seemingly tossing in anything that he thought would sound cool in various little bits of musical gimmickry. There’s a square-dance country tune (“Moonshine Hootenanny”), a bit of classical (“Chopin Waltz Op64 No2”), and an obligatory Spanish guitar interlude (“Andalusia”), among others. His commitment to each musical bit, however, is oddly inconsistent. Sometimes, as in “Moonshine Hootenanny”, he seems to lose interest in the chosen genre midway through, wandering off into a series of decidedly un-country prog metal solo passages before abruptly realizing “Oh, whoops, I’m supposed to be doing that yeehaw shit right now” and jumping right back into it as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, in “Funeral March” (featuring Ben Karas of Thank You Scientist3 on violin), Bumblefoot runs into the opposite problem—the mournful atmosphere cries out for a weeping, Gilmour-esque electric guitar climax, but Thal chooses this moment of all moments to hold back on the fireworks.
And yet there are times more often than not when his genre exploration strikes a strong balance between fitting into his chosen sound while still adding the distinct Bumblefoot style. His take on Chopin works in a great deal of variety in its arrangement, adapting the melody from a calm, well-mannered classical guitar waltz to Malmsteen-esque neoclassical virtuosity to even some Latin-esque rhythms. The loose, freewheeling “Griggstown Crossing”, meanwhile, offers a killer fretless talkbox solo that takes on the sound of Southern rock in a way that only Ron Thal truly can. In fact, his expert use of the fretless half of his signature double-neck guitar offers Thal a distinct niche among the shred landscape, providing an idiosyncratically liquid and free-flowing sound that stands out from a sea of milquetoast contemporaries.
On the whole, while …Returns! might not land every wild creative swing it throws, it remains an eminently enjoyable and undeniably impressive trip through the quirky mind of one of the most underappreciated guitar slingers out there right now. For the shred faithful, it’s an absolute slam dunk of a recommend, with enough arcane techniques and brain-breakingly complex ascensions up the fretboard to inspire months of fine-toothed analysis. Even for those who don’t know their sweeps from their taps, though, it’s just a fun, dizzying ride of soaring melodies, delightful genre dabbling, and some damn good guitar. It may have taken a while, but the artist known as Bumblefoot has indeed returned, and I hope he sticks around a bit longer this time.
Recommended tracks: Chopin Waltz Op64 No2, Cintaku, Anveshana, Griggstown Crossing
You may also like: Whom Gods Destroy, Consider the Source, Marbin
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram
Bumblefoot is:
– Ron Thal (double neck guitar, bass, synths)
With:
Kyle Hughes (drums, percussion)
Steve Vai (guitar solo on “Monstruoso”)
Brian May (guitar solo on “Once in Forever”)
Jerry Gaskill (drums on “Once in Forever”)
Derek Sherinian (keyboards on “Once in Forever”)
Guthrie Govan (guitar solos on “Anveshana”)
Ben Karas (violin on “Funeral March”)
- Named after a foot infection common in chickens. Yes, really. ↩︎
- The thing with this, of course, is that every member of those groups was “one of the better parts”. It was the whole that left something to be desired. ↩︎
- Fun fact: TYS founder Tom Monda received guitar lessons from Bumblefoot as a teenager, which would heavily influence his own fretless technique. ↩︎
