Defense Mechanizms [Import]

Michael Harris was first discovered by Guitar Magazine as a prodigy.
This album truly demonstrates his talent.
"Through The Eyes of Eternity" is up there with "La Villa Stragiato" IMHO.

The music on guitarist Michael Harris's first solo album Defense Mechanizms (1991), is kind of hard to put into a convenient category. It is an impressive mix of twelve instrumental compositions mostly in the progressive metal category, with influences from hard rock, classical, jazz, and neoclassical metal. Harris is a player whose impressive set of skills have grown more diverse over the years. Unfortunately Harris' talents may be appreciated by mostly by die hard metal fans, and guitar players.

Like David T. Chastain, Harris seems to favor dissonant note patterns, minor keys and cords, and some exotic scales that do often do not immediately sound familiar to most ears, and may take some time to get used to. The album has a few more accessible straight ahead rock tunes like, Tranz-Orbital Schizophrenia, Collision Course, and Psychotic Biorhythms, but in opening the album with the distinctly uncatchy title track Defense Mechaniszms, Harris seems to be saying, "this is what I'm about, and it's too bad it you don't like it".

Octavian: Heir To The Conqueror is a neoclassic romp, in a style similar to Joe Stump or Vinnie Moore. Wolfgang Lives! (A Modern Excerpt from Mozart's 25th Symphony) is as the title describes, is an upbeat interpretation of a classic piece. Call To Arms, is a slower number with neoclassical influences reminiscent of Yngwie Malmsteen, while Eminent Domain, is a slow grindy tune that kind of sounds like a Chastain composition.

Like many other extremely talented guitarists, Michael Harris's solo work will probably be appreciated only by a select few. While extremely good at what he does, his unique style isn't for everyone. He has also played with bands that include Arch Rival, Surgeon, Zanister (with David C. Chastain), Vitalij Kuprij (progressive metal with keyboards), Thought Chamber, and Darkology. If your tastes include some spacey tunes, exotic scales, and some odd sounding notes backed by some heavy riffs, you might want to check out Defense Mechnizms, as well as the catalogs of Michael Harris and David T. Chastain.

On first listen, it is too close to many other offerings in this genre, but after repeated listens, this grows on you. The qualities of this musik are not apparent at first and only reveal themselves after some intense listening. Like many others HARRIS can play the guitar very well, but his musik is a challenging and inventive take on METAL / FUSION with some georgous passages and tones as well as some hyper speed shredding. Overall it is a very well balanced CD that keeps your attention and gets your toes tapping.