FUTURE ADDICT

FUTURE ADDICT is the eighth album by MARTY FRIEDMAN who, of course, played with Cacophony and Megadeth but has actually released more solo albums than with either of those bands. MARTY is known for his virtuosic neoclassical shredding skills, of course, but he has been fairly eclectic with his solo releases. While his debut 'Dragon's Kiss' and other releases such as 'Music For Speeding' focused primarily on shredding up a storm, he has also released the new age meets metal album 'Scenes,' an eclectic symphonic album and right up there with his unpredictable repertoire is FUTURE ADDICT which is mostly a collection of remade versions of songs from his entire career only re-themed into J-pop themed metal. The music actually sounds more like some kind of progressive punk in its presentation. This album has a collection of guests helping out. MARTY of course contributes the guitars, but Jeremy Colson helps out on vocals and drums while Billy Sheehan also joins the party with Masaki sharing bass duties. Jeff Loomis also contributes some guitars and Elizabeth Schall helps out with backup vocals.

While these are all remakes there are three new tracks and two of them begin the album. 'Barbie' sound like a grunge version of the 'Rosemary's Baby' theme which is very short at only one minute and then abruptly turns into 'Simple Mystery' which is a heavy alternative rocker. The closer 'Tears Of An Angel' is the other original track and it is the odd track out as it sounds more like a melodic symphonic guitar song like off of 'Introduction' and sounding unlike the punk infused metal rockers that constitutes the rest of the album.

This album went over like a pile of doggy doo in the punch bowl when it was released. This album totally rubbed MARTY's fans the wrong way and i can actually understand why. For one thing he does the unthinkable by punkifying sacred cows such as 'Tornado Of Souls' from Megadeth's magnum opus 'Rust In Peace,' Cacophony tracks like 'Burn The Ground' and 'Where My Fortune Lies' as well as tracks from his entire career including his very first band Deuce. A novel idea and one worthy of exploration and i have to say that i do not find this album as hideous as the rest of the metal world seems to. While it is probably the nadir of MARTY's discography it is an interesting listen to hear a virtuoso play J-pop inspired punk of his prior musical output. The production is pretty raw and obviously designed to be that way. It is very weird to hear punk like creations that also have neoclassical guitar solos inserted.

While some of the tracks are admittedly of bad taste and should have been axed from the playlist, the overall effect is not the brutal rape of the eardrums as many would have you believe. True Colson isn't the cream of the vocal crop but does lend an interesting amateurism to the mix. MARTY seems to have succeeded in sounding like a garage revival band of sort breaking that spell only with some of the technical wizardries that he can't refrain from. This is a decent album although i'm the first to admit it's probably my least favorite of his lengthy disco. Tasty riffs, nasty solos and the J-pop punk energy is certainly there. Maybe he's just completely gone Japanese after living in Tokyo and hosting TV shows like Rock Fujiyama and Jukebox English for a little too long. It certainly made him whacky for this one but hey, he's constantly reinventing his sound so fear now. I personally like this, at least most of it.