Franck Ribiere - Bloody Karma
I was recently loitering in the Vai.com forums and a post caught my eye by a user called Karmattitude regarding a recent video interview with Greg Howe, well being a big Greg Howe fan I had to check it out. After commenting on the interview I was contacted by Karmattitude aka Franck Ribiere who asked me if I’d like to hear his album ‘Bloody Karma‘, well I’m not one to turn down the chance to review an instrumental guitar album!

Bloody Karma was released in the middle of 2006 and features 11 tracks of instrumental rock from Franck Ribiere on guitars, bass and keyboards, Vincent Fabre on drums (and a couple of guitar solos), Arnaud Decompoix on bass and Mistheria playing a couple of Keyboard solos. This is not the first recording by Franck he also recorded an instrumental album with the Double Heart Project featuring Chris Poland (Megadeth, OHM) as a guest and also contributed to the Shawn Lane Tribute Vol. 2.

The album is mainly rock with elements of fusion, kind of like Andy Timmons’ music. The album opens with a strong rock track called “A New Day” which alternates between fast rock backing and slow melodic breakdowns. The second track ‘ADN Discovery‘ delves deeper into rock territory showing off Franck’s impressive shred skills as well as Italian Keyboardist Mistheria’s skills! Franck has a very fluid playing style incorporating all the techniques in the shredders handbook and his speedy solos sound like second nature to him. The title track of this album (‘Bloody Karma‘) is probably my favourite because of the simple but infectious intro rhythm riff coupled with a strong melody and some nice Yngwie-esque double tracked solo fills. This track also has some impressive drumming as do all the tracks Vincent Fabre is certainly a talented musician in his own right. There are lots of half time breakdowns, aah that old chestnut! what rock album would be complete without one, Franck seems to be a fan of these to build up a bit of tension. ‘Boogytoshok‘ as the name suggests is a rockin boogie style track in the vein of Satch Boogie, this track actually features drummer Vincent Fabre trading bluesy guitar solos with Franck as well as a drum solo! It also has a nice slow and sleazy bluesy breakdown at the end. Franck has a really nice tone and his playing suits playing blues influenced music, I would like to hear more like this.

In all this is a good album with some great playing which shows that Franck has a great sense of melody and the chops to impress. Check out Franck’s YouTube channel for some live performances and interviews. If you are interested in purchasing this album head over to GuitarEuroShop.com.