Somewhat like a stripped down keyboard-less Planet X, Devil's Slingshot manages to straddle the line between progressive metal and fusion gracefully thanks to these incredible talents. The requisite tasty and chromatically tinged riffs are back from MacAlpine, while Sheehan does an admirable job of adding some melodic ideas as well as low end. And enough cannot be said about Virgil Donati... truly the greatest drummer I know of. A unique and solid effort from these three, with a very basic production that gives equal sonic space to all of them. If you like music to be harmonically and rhythmically unique, or if you like fusion (especially the heavier side of it), this album is a no-brainer.

When I first heard this album, I had just put down Chromaticity and Premonition, and I had to say, this album threw me a curve ball at first. It's NOTHING like any of Tony's earlier work, which is both a good and bad thing.

It's great to hear someone go in a new direction and honestly not sound like they're repeating themselves. The songs did this in particular when it came to the time signatures they were written in. Right now, I'm listening to "Injustice Line" (for like the thirtieth time) and the main riff still gnaws at me (it's in 10/8 time and is very challenging to listen to).

Basically, you should expect a lot of odd time signatures. Also, Billy didn't rip like he usually did. In fact a good primer for this album is the Steve Vai Live in Astoria DVD. You'll notice that Tony's style of playing on that DVD was really abstract and a bit of indication on where this album was going.

Like I said in the title however, once it grows on you, you'll really like it, but you gotta listen to it more than once.

My favorite tracks are:
Nederland - very heavy riffs in 6/8. no real melody however...
Def B*tch Blues - great lydian solo!
Lay Off - great heavy stuff
Ocean and Hourglass - uptempo rock with quirky time changes..

check it out!

This album has the best Tony Macalpine guitar playing in years. His soloing is compact, very fluid. The song structure is similar to the Planet X material. Billy Sheehan plays awesome and Virgil does is signature odd tempo drumming. I was pleasantly surprised with this production.