Band:	Greg Rapaport
Album:	Homunculus
Style:	Jazz fusion
Release date:	2006

01. The Sojourner (Confined)
02. The Brawler (Affliction)
03. The Corruptor (Righteous)
04. The Scapegoat (Revenge)
05. The Alchemist (Infernal)
06. The Assassin (Guilt)
07. The Swindler (Loss)
08. The Mystic (Antipathy)
09. The Jester (Despair)
10. The Priest (Depraved)

Greg Rapaport is an American musician who comes from the underground scene of his country. Even if "Homunculus" is already his 4th piece of music, I cannot say, unfortunately, that I had the luck to hear something about him before. But this lack of recognition doesn't come from any lack of talent because Greg, you can trust me, is just an amazing guitarist and compositor. No, actually his "problem" just comes from the fact that Greg plays instrumental music and as you all know, it's not so trendy nowadays?

"Homunculus", the last album of our American dude is a nice piece of Progressive Metal. Divided in ten tracks (each tracks represent a special character, like a Jester, a Priest etc) the album is a description of some parts of human personality. It's not so easy to "send" a message to the listeners when you only play music and don't use lyrics, but for sure Greg Rapaport succeeds in this work.

The ten songs are complex and technical but in any case, Greg tries to do some musical demonstration. It's more a matter of "musical feeling" then anything else. Even if his guitar playing is really good and complex I've never had the "boring" felling that we can encounter with some "guitar heroes". Between the rage of a Symphony X on some songs (like "The Sojourner (Confined)") and the technicality that you'll be able to find with some bands like Dream Theater the music of Greg Rapaport is original and never boring. Plus, his guitars soli are totally crazy and remind me the guitar playing of "IA" Eklundh on his "Freak Guitar" albums.
The production is really good and at the end this release will please all the ones who like instrumental music. All the songs have their own personality with a lot of differences between them. Plus, it's real Progressive music that means that, even if Greg is the only musician on this release, you'll never be in front of a CD that will look like the one of a "guitar heroe".

Even if it will be hard to find a lot of success with this kind of release (not in reason of its quality of course) I really hope that the real Metal Heads who like guitars will have a look on this release to support this good musician.