review: Lawrence Wallace -- instrumental guitar shred magic and wizardry

Lawrence Wallace

Journey Through Time

1 February 2021

As you already know very well, in metal music there is a whole lot of growling, screaming, yelling, gargling, snarling, screeching, pig squealing, shrieking, hollering, shouting, and gnashing of teeth. Really, it’s all a bit distracting, isn't it? Here's how it goes when you are in your music zone: "Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I like that riff, that's cool. I can dig it. I’m vibing. Oh, no, wait, who dis? Wha? That's, what now? Oh, I get it. I guess those are them vocals for this music. Yikes! Is that a person trying to sound like a rabid dog? Yup, yup, that’s it. Oh, wait, there's more, that sounds like a pig ha ha! This person is trying to sound like a pig, oh that's so funnieee! Let me see if I can imitate that sound, and see if I can also sound like pig ha ha, hwurghwurghwurgh, that's hilarious!"

Next thing you know, you totally forgot about the guitar work, didn’t you?! That person that makes animal farm sounds got you distracted, didn't they? Now you're not even noticing the bass lines (and the bass player worked so hard, so very hard, there, living in the van down by the river, to write those lines so that you would notice!). Of course, you forgot the drummer, too. Now the drummer feels so neglected because the pig squeals got you all dazed, amazed and confused. Metal is kind of weird because we seem to enjoy some person shouting in our ear, but we wouldn't want that person at school shouting at us to do our homework or yelling at us when it is time to go out for recess.

Do you know who has had it up to here with all that yelling nonsense?! Lawrence Wallace, that's who! Lawrence Wallace is here to keep you totally focused on the music. The first thing that Mr. Wallace did is that he fired the vocalist since the inception of the music. You’re fired! No more vocalist! Finally! Freedom! I’m freeeeeeee! What a sense of relief not to have to listen to somebody using their mouth and make noise to annoy me. You can finally feel your guitar wavelengths join the wavelengths in which Mr. Wallace is travelling. Here's the situation: this is fast metal music guitar shredding all the live long day. If you want fast guitar soloing, you want shredding, then you see what Mr. Wallace is doing. The best thing is that it is melodic and it sounds like songs. There are eight songs, and one quick intermission slow track. Of those eight songs, only one seems to be a slow song. That's probably about the right ratio for the album. Keep the fast songs going, Mr. Wallace.

Mr. Wallace is DIY and is not perfect because he’s no billionaire. The drum sound could stand improvement, for instance, and Mr. Wallace, we are sure, already knows that very, very well. This music is very catchy and it seems like a guitar player interested in turning shredding into songs. Nice! Very nice songs, and who needs a singer when you can make the guitar sing?! The name is Wallace. Lawrence Wallace, at your service.

Journey Through Time by Lawrence Wallace