THE STORY OF SCOTT RÖTTI

'Morglbl' is an Eclectic Prog band from France and is one of Christophe Godin's projects. Many have called their instrumental music Jazz Metal with a touch of humor, or 'Pantera' meets 'Alan Holdsworth' and throw in a little 'Primus' for good measure. Ok, so that intrigues me. The band has been around since 1997, and the lineup has remained mostly consistent. The band has opened for bands like 'Liquid Tension Experiment' and 'Umphrey's McGee'. On this album, 'The Story of Scott Rotti, released in February of 2019, you have Godin on guitar, Ivan Rougny on bass, and Aurelian Ouzoullas on drums.

So, personally for me, I don't hear the similarity to Holdsworth here because the guitar styles are quite different. But the Progressive Metal influence is definitely there. The meters are definitely not standard, the guitar work is excellent and the little jazz surprises are cool. But it tends to lean towards the metal side than anything. I also find that the music is probably closer to 'Liquid Tension Experiment', but even that is not quite right, because I can feel more dynamic and uniqueness in Morglbl's overall sound. Many compare the guitar playing to Steve Vai, and while Godin is in the same league, his style is so much more varied and dynamic where Vai's solo work can begin to sound too much the same. The riffs are excellent and definitely in the Progressive Metal style being several steps above the more standard style of metal.

The first 5 tracks are guitar heavy progressive metal style tracks and really only have short sections that move away from the regular heaviness and somewhat technical guitar solos with heavy riffs and not really that much jazz. The real semblance of jazz comes in the 6th track 'La Lepre a Elise' which has a good mix of a more toned down jazz with effects combined with the heavy and quirky metal all with an undertone of funkiness, similar to 'Buckethead'. More variety like this would have been welcome. 'Panzer Kokotier' features a fast tropical feel with a good mix of jazz and metal. This track has the style that I was hoping for, fast guitar, fast jazz flair, playing around with styles and a smart melodic line. The remaining tracks continue in the same vein, heavy progressive guitar with a few short mellow breaks.

This album is good for lovers of guitar heavy progressive metal without any vocals and lots of crazy guitar solos. The production is great, and so is the musicianship. I just tend to lose interest in the same way I would with albums that are full of technical guitar solos. No doubt that there is better musicianship than in your typical guitar god album, but there just isn't enough variety for my taste. I love the heaviness, but I need something else to keep my interest going. Disregarding that though, I can easily consider this a 4 star album because it is done very well and the musicianship is stellar.