‘Quadrasonic‘ is the new album from Norwegian shred master Jarle H. Olsen featuring Alex Argento on Keyboards, Rodrigo Garcia on Bass and Bjarte K. Helland on Drums with guest appearances from Jan Martin Kleveland and Manuel Soto. Jarle cites Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen and Marty Friedman among his influences and I really hear a bit of all of these players and more on this album, for instance the intro to ‘From Deep Within‘ wouldn’t sound out of place on Iron Maiden’s ‘Seventh Son…‘, having said that the rest of the track doesn’t sound like Maiden at all but I like when I hear a hat tip to influences. Another example would be ‘Enigmatic Mind‘ which is a like a heavier version of Yngwie Malmsteen mixed with John Petrucci. I make these comparisons not only with Jarle’s playing but with his compositional style too, this is a very mature sounding album with some incredible technical rhythm and lead playing, Jarle has a very precise and clean style so that even when he is sweep picking arpeggios they are very even in both tempo and attack, just check out ‘Event Horizon‘ to see what I’m talking about (here is a lesson on the intro that Jarle recorded for Guitar Messenger – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4aZZ0uL1tk)

‘Quadrasonic‘ is a very atmospheric sounding album and features some amazing technical melodic playing I particularly liked the final 3 part suite (if I can call it that) called ‘Osiris‘, ‘The Omnipotence‘, ‘The Resurrection‘ and ‘Journey To Duat‘ all very distinct sounding and ‘Journey…‘ has an awesome odd time riff. Try this album if you like modern progressive shred instrumental albums by artists such as Jeff Loomis, John Petrucci and Marco Sfogli.

Check out http://www.jarleholsen.com/ for more info.