Brodie Cumming's "Trance"

USA Instrumental Guitar

    This was the first demo ever submitted to The Shred Zone. What a cool demo it is. All self produced, recorded and arranged by one an Brodie Cumming. The sound quality is very good for a at home demo. He spent time dialing in tones which really make this work shine. But on to the more important things...

    Brodie is one hot guitar player. The opening track "Master Force" really rocks the house! Great backing rhythms and keys. Reminds me of the old school 80's pop metal very catchy. His leads are very well constructed, lots of flavor and flare. He is a very wild guitar player that's for sure. I really think he should get into a metal band and tear up some live audiences with his smoking guitar antics! "Artic Tundra" is another great rocker great with a cool blend of guitar effects, really gives you that cold artic feel. "Juggernaut" is a full blown metal shred assault on your senses.  Striking you down with arpeggios, speed runs, and lots of classical pedal runs. He really goes wild with this one. I even heard some cool odd harmonies like Jason Becker and Marty Friedmen used to do in their Shrapnel days. "Trance" is a slow one with some jazz feel to it. Great leads, it really shows his diversity as a player. I was Impressed with his knowledge of jazz lead playing on this one. "Hammer Head" is a fitting title for this next song!  It's high energy heavy metal rocker. Great backing riff in this song, and lots of trem bar antics. Don't leave your 16th notes at home on this one. "Palm Springs" is defiantly a sound track for and 1980's Miami Vice show.  Its a really happy sounding song with some great licks. Brodie tears up the fret board all over the place and again you get some cool sounding odd harmonies. You'll get such a kick out of this song, its a real fun summer driving song. I totally dig the cool "happy" keyboard lines. "Hop Kiln" really stands out. It sounds like your taking a trip to the evil circus. Its all keyboards and its kind of scary too. "Consumer" is next and is a great track with lots of keyboard and guitar melodies. Another happy sounding song. Brodie really knows how to use different modes to give his songs a totally different feel. "I10 Ramp"song nine is another great metal instrumental. The backing riff totally rocks. I think Dokken might have barrowed some riffs from this brother! Insane shredding on this song. "Wild 'n Crazy" really pushes the demo off the edge. I really love this song, very melodic and I like how the keyboards accent the same guitar parts. It really helps emphasize a passage in a song. The leads are great and they really complement the song as a whole.

    What can I say, but this was a great demo. I give Brodie lots of credit for this one. The production is great, you can hear everything very well, all instruments are clean and crisp. I hope Brodie decides to send this tape to out and try to get a pro release of his work. He's got the shred, the melody, and the technique to be a great player. I hope he can get a band together and do a full CD. Its great work, and I hope to hear more form this player again.  Want more?

Contact Brodie Cumming at: brodiecumming@hotmail.com

-Nick Martinelli