George Lynch – Shadow Train – Album Review

Those that know me in person will attest to the fact that I am a big fan of George Lynch and have been ever since I was knee-high to a Marshall stack. In fact I was such a fan that the only ‘guitar tuition’ videotape I ever bought featured George Lynch. I think the booklet that accompanied the tape was almost worn to shreds (and I still have it and got it signed by George a couple of years back). It is true that the “Tooth and Nail” Dokken era is still perhaps my favorite, but George has managed to keen his wits about him and has continued to put out some great music over the years.

Most recently I think the Sweet & Lynch album “Only To Rise” was a masterpiece and something I should have reviewed. May be I can find time to backtrack to that one. Of course there was also the Lynch Mob recording “Sun Red Sun” which was also an excellent release (late in 2014), albeit only seven tracks long – I suppose that was closer to an extended EP – but the new Lynch Mob release, “Rebel”, is due out in a few short weeks. George has been a busy boy recently.

So, the Shadow Train release is supposed to be the musical accompaniment to the Shadow Nation, which is a documentary about the Native American Indians in the modern world today. I’m not sure when that is due for release, or exactly what drove George to pursue that, but he did make the following comment on Blabbermouth: “I’ve spent over four decades of my life pursuing elusive musical aspirations. But for even longer than that, I’ve cared, studied and thought deeply about the human condition and how we interact with each other and the world around us. Fusing these two aspirations into one has been a challenge for me throughout my creative life. This is my attempt at bonding the music and the message into one cohesive whole.” Right-o. Now we know….

The Shadow Train album actually stretches to eighteen tracks, across two CDs, which is quite a mammoth offering. It seems that the first tracks recorded were the nine tracks that are included on CD number 2 in the set, so the presentation is actually chronologically reversed, and in my opinion the tracks on CD#1 are more accessible, which may be a result of the players becoming more familiar with each other. As for the line-up here we rather obviously have George Lynch on guitar, while on vocals we have Greg Analia, Gabe Rosales on bass, Donnie Dickman on keyboards, and Jimmy D’Anda on drums. Perhaps I’ve led a sheltered life, but I’m not familiar with any of the other players listed here, and certainly each does a fine job, but I would be hard pushed to say any one of them stands out as exceptional, at least within the constraints of this release.
So turning to the album itself, CD#1 opens with “Vulture”, which kicks things off with a pretty crushing riff, however the verse takes things in a bit of a different direction, perhaps more in-line with something from the “Souls of We” record from 2008. Once the track gets to the solo section, it’s clear this is a more restrained George Lynch and perhaps it’s less about the guitar, than the song itself.

The second track, “Currency Of Lies”, seems to take a more familiar path and I swear there are times when I could mistake the vocals for Oni Logan (Lynch Mob). This is definitely a track I could have seen making it on to a Lynch Mob record. With that out of the way, up next is perhaps my favorite from the eighteen included here – “Power And Resistance” – and it is one of those Lynch songs that gets inside your head and has you coming back again and again. The chorus has a great hook, and the verse a neatly melodic riff. This is right there in “the zone” that draws me to so many George Lynch records.

The following track, “Now It’s Dark”, is what I call a “plodder” in terms of pace, but…! That chorus vocal melody… this is another track that is hard to skip and digs its way into your subconscious.

Now the rest of the record actually does a bit less for me. I don’t want to imply there’s anything ‘wrong’ with what follows, but in the “CD in the car” test, this record fails – despite having this CD for nearly a week now, it has failed to inspire me to burn a copy and swap out any of the CDs currently sitting in the CD changer (yeah, up to date I am not…). Track 7, “Ghost”, has a sort of spoken/rapped vocal line, which again sort of reminds me of the “Souls Of We” record for some reason, but as things move on I’m less engaged with the album.

Moving on the second CD, there seems to be more of a blues influence to the tracks included here, which is certainly no bad thing, and the opening track “Believe” has a nice bluesy, almost Gospel vibe to it, and is really the first time I noticed the keyboards. The second track “Blinded” is definitely a blues stomp, and while there’s nothing ground breaking here it’s a track I want to hear again. This groove is carried into the next track, “Fallen”, but from here out I’m less enthusiastic; track 5, “Prayer Mechanism” comes across as a bit of dirge to me, while “Soux Wake Up” probably works in the context of the movie I’m sure, but this message laden track is probably the one I’ve skipped more times than I’ve felt compelled to listen through. May be I’m just missing the point here? I think this same comment also applies to the next track, “Trail Of Tears”, which carries a definite Native American Indian atmospheric vibe, but it’s a little heavy.

The final track, “World On Fire”, draws us up out of the funk that I can’t help feel from the previous four tracks, and get’s things rocking again with some nice melodic guitar work buried into the very frame of the track.

So, in summary, not a total success, at least in my book. There’s a part of me that wants to blame the length of the whole thing on my funk here, but that’s not really it. I can’t help but think there was more rockin’ going on here and less intellectual posturing, the overall vibe would be more upbeat, but the bottom line is this just isn’t a record that I feel I will be reaching for to often, unlike the Lynch Mod, Sweet & Lynch or T&N albums which I continue to spin with great anticipation. All-in-all, I would say this is a record that hard-core Lynch fans will embrace, but otherwise there isn’t a great draw here. My score overall here is a muted 7.5/10