Guitar wizard Sam Mooradian is releasing his second effort “Bad Brain” Friday July 28th and was pleased to get an inquiry in our email. “Depression For Breakfast” dropped in 2018 and didn’t hear anything from him since then. I then saw he joined Fallujah to play shows and clicked who it was. “Bad Brains” is pretty much an instrumental album with a few guest vocalists. I dig Sam’s playing because he can write an intricate enough song without going Necrophagist or Archspire crazy. He had some good grooves on DFB and didn’t go overboard on the guitar solos. Even for a casual listener who isn’t a musician could enjoy it. “Bad Brain” really improves on what he accomplished on that previous release but is 1,000 times more enjoyable.

Interludes and Transition tracks with me can be totally cool with me or utterly stupid. There are a few on this album, and they do their job. They weren’t forced and sound pretty cool honestly. Nothing like a solid album ruined by forced interludes that don’t sound like they fit. The rhythms on the album are very good and rather diverse. “Bad Brain” is a great melodic adventure that brings plenty of unique riffs, some complexity and a lot of mood. It takes you on a musical trip many instrumental offerings generally fail to do. I can enjoy some great guitar playing as a fellow player, but compose a fucking song and don’t wank the whole song ya know? Sam brings a lot of that and it’s good more players are riff/composition focused, and not littering their songs with endless guitar solos.

Mooradian brings some flair to a genre that’s rather challenging to promote. It’s melodic, heavy, unusual and pretty proggy. It checked all the boxes I enjoy in a (mainly) instrumental release that doesn’t bore me to death. He dropped the title track (which is a good song) ahead of time you can listen to below ahead of release day. It has a few curveballs that add to the moody element of the album and I think the community will enjoy the diverse sound “Bad Brain” brings to the musical table. Don’t sleep on Mooradian’s new release, because you never know when you’ll get another one.

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